Martin Scorsese, whose eagerly anticipated new film, Killers of the Flower Moon, is set to premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, is getting candid about his mortality.

Speaking about his latest project, which reunites two of his preeminent leading men, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, Scorsese told Deadline that he’s “got to” get started on his next movie. “I wish I could take a break for eight weeks and make a film at the same time,” he said with a laugh. “The whole world has opened up to me, but it’s too late. It’s too late.”

When asked to elaborate, the 80-year-old Oscar winner said: “I’m old. I read stuff. I see things. I want to tell stories, and there’s no more time. [Filmmaker Akira] Kurosawa, when he got his Oscar, when George [Lucas] and Steven [Spielberg] gave it to him, he said, ‘I’m only now beginning to see the possibility of what cinema could be, and it’s too late.’ He was 83. At the time, I said, ‘What does he mean?’ Now I know what he means.”

Scorsese has previously acknowledged his career’s ticking clock. Last year he lamented missing the opportunity to work with Goodfellas star Ray Liotta one more time before the actor’s untimely death. In 2013, Scorsese also got introspective about his films: “There’s only a couple more left if I get to make them.” That was during the press tour for The Wolf of Wall Street. Since then, Scorsese has helmed 2016’s Silence and 2019’s The Irishman, in addition to taking on various TV projects and producing gigs. 

Killers of the Flower Moon, which also costars Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons, is based on the best-selling book of the same name by David Grann and features a screenplay by Eric Roth and Scorsese. It follows the murders of members of the oil-rich Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma, a series of horrific crimes known as the “Reign of Terror.” The film will screen out of competition at Cannes on Saturday, May 20, at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Following its festival debut, the movie will receive a prime awards-season bow with a limited theatrical release on October 6, going wide on October 20 in the US before streaming globally on Apple TV+.