Martin Scorseseโ€™s Killers Of The Flower Moonโ€™ To Begin Filming This Month
โ€” Updated on 2 August 2021

Martin Scorseseโ€™s Killers Of The Flower Moonโ€™ To Begin Filming This Month

โ€” Updated on 2 August 2021
Garry Lu
WORDS BY
Garry Lu

When Martin Scorsese announces a new project, the world tends to stop and pay a bit of attention โ€“ despite whatever issues we may collectively have with Netflixโ€™s rather lacklustre The Irishman. After almost two years of industry whispers and throwaway mentions buried within interview transcripts, it appears as though his upcoming crime epic starring Leonard DiCaprio and Robert De Niro โ€“ Killers of the Flower Moon โ€“ will finally be gearing up for production in February. Seven long months of production, to be exact.

Based on the bestselling non-fiction book by journalist David Grann โ€“ as well as the real-life historical events in question โ€“ this has been something ripe for big-screen adaptation long before the director behind Goodfellas, The Departed, and The Wolf of Wall Street had his Academy Award-winning sights set on it. Point of fact, Killers of the Flower Moon was subject to a US$5 million bidding war for the screen rights alone.

In the 1920s, Native Americans from the Osage tribe became the โ€œrichest people in the worldโ€ after large oil deposits were discovered beneath their reservation. Not long after, several members of the tribe were murdered one by one in various ways โ€“ consistent with the ongoing narrative of America whenever resources come into play. Officially, the body count reached at least 20. Investigations since have estimated the real figure is somewhere in the hundreds.

Acknowledged as โ€œone of the most sinister crimesโ€ and โ€œone of the highest-profile serial killingsโ€ witnessed by the country during the 20th century, Killers of the Flower Moon also involves the birth of the FBI and its first Director, J. Edgar Hoover; which were tasked with investigating the entire ordeal. Incidentally, DiCaprio has previously portrayed Hoover for Clint Eastwoodโ€™s 2011 film J. Edgar.

Martin Scorsese Killers Of The Flower Moon

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โ€œMembers of the Osage tribe in the United States are murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s sparking a major FBI investigation involving J. Edgar Hoover.โ€

IMDb

This time around, however, DiCaprio is taking on a far less heroic role. In the first script written by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, A Star Is Born, Dune), he was positioned as the hero โ€“ โ€œa federal agent working for the newly-established FBI, who heads to the Osage Nation to solve a series of murdersโ€. For the better part of last year, DiCaprio pushed to switch it up.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the revised iteration of the script will see the leading man portray the nephew of Robert De Niroโ€™s character โ€“ the filmโ€™s villain and long-suspected killer โ€“ โ€œtorn between love and the evil machinations of his uncleโ€.

โ€œMy screenplay, I think, was accurate to the book,โ€ says Roth, speaking about the original script.

โ€œItโ€™s the story of Osage Indians, 1921, the poorest people in America who discover oil in this terrible land in Oklahoma where theyโ€™ve been driven to.โ€

โ€œThen every killer in America comes to kill 184 of them for their money, but this really heroic guy comes in [to help].โ€

Killers of the Flower Moon was initially set to be released by Paramount before its rapidly ballooning US$200 million budget and creative differences, mainly regarding DiCaprioโ€™s role in relation to how itโ€™d impact commercial appeal, proved untenable. Instead, itโ€™ll now be released through Apple TV+ (release date to be announcedโ€ฆ as well as several other key details yet to be confirmed).

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Garry Lu
WORDS by
After stretching his legs with companies such as The Motley Fool and the odd marketing agency, Garry joined Boss Hunting in 2019 as a fully-fledged Content Specialist. In 2021, he was promoted to News Editor. Garry proudly retains a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, black bruises from Muay Thai, as well as a black belt in all things pop culture. Drop him a line at garry@luxity.com.au