Yahoo News CinemaCon Surprise: Leonardo DiCaprio Shows Up for Martin Scorsese Honor
None other than Leonardo DiCaprio showed up for Martin Scorsese during a special luncheon conversation at CinemaCon honoring the famed filmmaker. Both received standing ovations.
Scorsese was in Vegas Thursday to promote Killers of the Flower Moon, from Apple Original Studios and starring DiCaprio opposite Lily Gladstone and Robert DeNiro. Both DiCaprio and De Niro are Scorsese’s go-to actors and each starred in many of his films.
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Martin Scorsese Brings 'Killers of the Flower Moon' First-Look to CinemaCon
Apple Studios, which made Killers of the Flower Moon, is partnering with Paramount in order to give the film an exclusive theatrical release in theaters around the globe in October following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month. Scorsese’s most recent film, The Irishman (also starring De Niro) was famously released on Netflix after a relatively small theatrical run.
“I’m really thrilled to have a wide theatrical release before it becomes available at home, which is OK,” said Scorsese, who didn’t sound exactly enthusiastic when he used the word “home.”
After the filmmaker received the award, DiCaprio and Scorsese settled in for a conversation. “I am truly grateful for my experiences working with you, Marty,” said the actor.
The first question addressed the theatrical experience. “It translates differently” than when viewing at home, Scorsese said. Growing up, he said his family couldn’t afford to go to see live theater, so he discovered the world through movies.
“I had whooping cough and asthma beginning at the age of three. They kept me from sports … or from laughing too hard,” said Scorsese. “They didn’t know to do with me, so they brought me to the movies.” He saw The Wizard of Oz in 1948 and also recalled seeing the Western Duel in the Sun. “I’ve never gotten over it. I was 5 years old.” He remembered seeing Citizen Kane on TV when he was 15. “It made me aware the camera could speak,” he said.
Scorsese also urged the throngs of theater owners attending the luncheon to play more independent films in order to foster up-and-coming filmmakers.
Earlier in the day, Scorsese spoke more about Killers of the Flower Moon.
“This is my sixth film with Leo and my 10th with De Niro, and my first with both of them together,” Scorsese said during his remarks onstage during Paramount’s session (he received the longest and loudest applause of the entire week). “This is a picture designed to be seen projected on a big screen. It doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate films on home screens, but this is a big-screen movie, and that’s what we made. As you’ll see now, I can only make this a picture with the collaborators who are remarkable and who are totally dedicated to bringing this story to life on an epic scale.”
The film, which Scorsese and screenwriter Eric Roth adapted from David Grann’s best-selling 2017 nonfiction book, centers on an FBI investigation of a series of murders of the Osage people that took place in Oklahoma in the early 1920s. It became known as the Reign of Terror after oil was discovered on tribal land.
“I’d like to thank the entire Osage nation,” said Scorsese. He also gave a special thanks to Jamie Erlict and Zack Van Amburg of Apple Original Films.
DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of cattleman William Hale (De Niro). Gladstone, who is of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage and first broke out in Kelly Reichardt’s 2017 film Certain Women, plays Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman who has inherited an oil fortune. The cast also includes Jesse Plemons as Tom White, a former Texas Ranger investigating the murders, and Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion and Tantoo Cardinal.
Said Paramount film boss Brian Robbins of Scorsese earlier in the day: “Each [of his films] are wholly distinctive with their own unique Scorsese language, style and signature of cinema … And when Marty works with Leonardo DiCaprio, the combination is creative brilliance and box office. Their five previous films grossed $1.3 billion and earned 31 Oscar nominations.”
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