Apple TV+ /Courtesy Everett Collection
Paramount will bring Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon to cinemas in France starting October 18, Deadline has confirmed, in a move that will subject the film to the country’s strict window rules.
Paramount Pictures France announced the local theatrical release date on Tuesday in an updated schedule published on its website, and Deadline has confirmed that the film will receive a regular distribution release and then go straight to Apple TV+.
Apple Orginal Films announced Monday that Killers Of The Flower Moon, in partnership with Paramount Pictures, will be a worldwide exclusive in theaters, beginning October 6 on a limited basis, for widespread distribution beginning October 20 before expanding to Apple TV+ is streamed.
There were questions as to whether the film would be released in theaters in France, where current media chronology laws mandate a 17-month window between a film’s theatrical release and its streaming release for most global platforms, including Apple TV+.
Netflix has negotiated a 15-month window, pledging additional investment in local feature films and signing an agreement with local film and television guilds. Other streamers like Apple TV+, Amazon and Disney+ have yet to go this route.
Scorsese has a large following in cinephile France, but his Netflix-supported The Irishman received only two previews in France – at Delegate General Thierry Frémaux’s Lumière Festival in Cannes and at the French Cinematheque in Paris – ahead of its streaming release in November 2019.
This was in contrast to the US and UK, where the film received limited releases.
Expectations remain high that Killers Of The Flower Moon, about the serial murder of members of the oil-rich Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma, will have its world premiere in Cannes in May.
Confirmation of the French theatrical release opens the door for Killers Of The Flower Moon to play in competition if the film is indeed made available to Cannes and the festival and Scorsese wish to go down that route.
Under Cannes rules, which align with France’s window laws, only films guaranteed a theatrical release in France can compete for the festival’s coveted Palme d’Or, a stipulation that Netflix and its top titles have challenged in recent years kept away from the Croisette .