Jodie Foster: Scorsese's Killers Of The Flower Moon Better Suited As Streaming Series

Martin Scorsese’s 93% RT Movie Should’ve Been A Streaming Series, Says Jodie Foster Martin Scorsese smiling behind the scenes of Killers of the Flower Moon By  Matthew Rudoy Published 27 minutes ago Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025.  Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Jodie Foster argues that Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon would have worked better as a streaming series. The movie adapts the true story of members of the Osage tribe being killed after oil was discovered on their land. With a 93% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, Killers of the Flower Moon's reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

At the Marrakech International Film Festival, where she received the Tribute Award, Foster spoke about how, after doing True Detective season 4, she sees the benefits of streaming series more than ever before. She believes streaming has many advantages over film right now, especially when it comes to mainstream media in the U.S. Check out her comments below:

Streaming is able to do things that we’re not able to do in traditional mainstream movies anymore. Real narrative now in the United States is on streaming. Big franchise superhero movies are what you see in the movie theaters, but the real, real narrative is on streaming.

You’re able to tell eight-hour stories, or five-season stories, where you can explore every angle in a way that you could never in a feature. I love the freedom of that.

Foster went on to highlight Killers of the Flower Moon as the kind of movie that would have been better-suited to being an eight-hour limited series. She specifically focused on how the streaming format would have prevented the story from being as dominated by Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro's characters, Ernest Burkhat and William King Hale, and given more attention to the Indigenous characters before they were killed.

He wanted to explore the experience of Native America at that time and what we had was a very interesting movie about two guys who go back and forth and talk to each other.

Everybody was sort of excited that the native story was going to be told and what they found was like, "Wow, all the native women are dead."

They said, "Well, it’s a feature, we didn’t have time", but there was time. There was an eight-hour limited series that was not made, that could have been made where, if you really needed to explore all the male toxic masculinity, you could have done that, but you could have had episode two actually centered on the native story.

Foster, who previously worked with Scorsese on the 1976 movie Taxi Driver, made it clear that she was not criticizing the filmmaker, but was merely using Killers of the Flower Moon to speak about wider issues in the theatrical industry. She emphasized that she wants Scorsese to do more work like his "great" 2016 drama series Vinyl and to see him and other filmmakers begin to embrace streaming more.

I can’t wait until he embraces that even more, because he has so much to bring to the table.

So many filmmakers have so much to bring to the table, but they have this idea of, "Oh, wait, I just want to make a feature, but I don’t want to make an hour and 45 minute feature, I want to make a five-hour feature." You’re like, wait, why are we doing that in the theater?

The debate about whether the Martin Scorsese movie would have worked better as a streaming series is subjective, but Foster makes a compelling argument that aligns with some of the film's most predominant criticisms. Numerous critics took issue with the movie's approximately three and a half hour runtime and wished there was more focus on Lily Gladstone's character, Mollie Kyle.

Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon

Earlier in the festival, Scorsese sent a surprise video message to Foster congratulating her on her achievement, expressing that he wished he could be there, and recalling the "pull" she had from a young age.

​I want to congratulate you on this honor tonight in Marrakech. I only wish I could be there. You’re such an important part of my work and my career. There’s a joy in your work that you’ve created since before you could walk, actually … I’ll never forget the memory of you walking into my office at 8 or 9 years old and having more pull than anyone else in the studio at the time.​

Foster and Scorsese have had a strong bond since collaborating on Taxi Driver decades ago, but that doesn't mean they always share the same opinions. As seen with Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese continues to champion movies and the theatrical experience, while Foster sees streaming as the best way forward, as both prolific artists navigate the ever-evolving entertainment industry.

10/10

Killers of the Flower Moon

Like Follow Followed History Drama Crime Runtime 200minutes Director Martin Scorsese Writers Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese

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• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Louis Cancelmi

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• Killers of the Flower Moon

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