Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

[Hoke Moseley]

Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese reportedly has tapped his longtime colleague and fellow Oscar winner Robert De Niro to play the villain in his film adaptation of "Killers of the Flower Moon."

The Osage News reports that Scorsese and others involved in the eagerly anticipated production met today with Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and other representations of the Osage Nation on the tribe's Pawhuska campus.

As previously reported, the movie, which will be directed by Scorsese and star Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio, is being adapted from the critically acclaimed true-crime best-seller by David Grann (“The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon”).

"Killers of the Flower Moon" tells the story of the Osage Indians, who, in the 1920s, became the wealthiest people in the world because of oil under their land in Oklahoma. They were then serially murdered off in one of the most sinister crimes in American history. The case became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations. The FBI sent in a team of undercover agents, including one of the only Native Americans in the bureau. They eventually caught one of the masterminds. However, as Grann documents, there was a deeper and darker conspiracy that the bureau never exposed.

The Osage News' Shannon Shaw Duty reports that Scorsese noted during the meeting that DeNiro will be playing murderer Bill Hale in the film.

But the focus of today's meeting at the Osage Nation headquarters was how the Osage Nation could help with the filming, with Scorsese confirming that the production will be working closely with the tribe to accurately depict its culture, history and the language.

Pre-production has already begun on the film and will accelerate in November. The film will be shot in the spring and summer of 2020, according to the Osage News.

Time to get excited!

[Poya]

God does exist.

[CreasyBear]

This is such a terrific book. I saw Grann speak last year and it was a wonderful treat!

It look like this film is going to be stacked! Can't wait.

[Cremildo]

Robbie Robertson will compose the score.

Variety: Over 40-plus years working with Scorsese, what has made that relationship so special and so successful and so continually changing?
RR: You know, it just is. I’m not sure, other than the fact that I so appreciate his work and I think he likes what I bring to the table, and we also have a very close friendship as well. But I believe that we both bring stuff that the other didn’t see coming. I’m already starting to work on the music for the next movie, and they don’t even start shooting until sometime in the spring — it’s that exciting.

Variety: Can you tell us quickly what it is?
RR: Yeah. It’s a movie based on the book “Killers of the Flower Moon,” it’s a Native American story that takes place in the 1920s — it’s the last thing that you would expect Marty to be doing next, but oh boy, are we excited about this one. It’s completely different, challenging, and my mom is from the Mohawk Nation, so I’ve got a bit of an inside on this world.

[CyberpunkCentral]

Yay, Cinema! Don't get too many of them anymore.

[aiman04]

Has Scorsese ever directed another genre?

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by aiman04

Has Scorsese ever directed another genre?

Who’s That Knocking at My Door - relationship drama

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore - family drama

New York, New York - musical, relationship drama

Raging Bull - family drama, sports

The King of Comedy - dark comedy

After Hours - dark comedy

The Color of Money - sports movie, drama

The Last Temptation of Christ - religious drama

Cape fear - revenge thriller

The Age of Innocence - costume drama

Kundun - religious drama, biopic

Bringing out the Dead - thriller

The Aviator - biopic

Shutter Island - mystery

Hugo - children’s movie

Silence - religious drama

Not to mention all his documentaries.

Seems pretty varied to me.

[s2mikey]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

When's Scorsese finally gonna toss DiCaprio aside?

Right? He sucks. Always has.

And, when is Scorcese not going to just make the same Goofellas style film again? Everything he does is the same old crap. Same people in the movies too. Yawn. I dont care what the backdrop is - somehow it'll feel the same as everything else he's done.

I think he should take a stab at a Super-Hero film.

[BluRayTim]

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Right? He sucks. Always has.

And, when is Scorcese not going to just make the same Goofellas style film again? Everything he does is the same old crap. Same people in the movies too. Yawn. I dont care what the backdrop is - somehow it'll feel the same as everything else he's done.

I think he should take a stab at a Super-Hero film.

You don’t like Tarantino, either, s2mikey. In fact, you call him Hackatino.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Right? He sucks. Always has.

[Cremildo]

Scorsese has shared some info during a new interview for Sight & Sound:

S&S: You’re about to make Killers of the Flower Moon, the story of the Bureau of Investigation handling of the 1920s murders of members of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma, who had become immensely rich through their oil rights. The narrative, in the book it’s based on anyway, is more linear than it is in The Irishman, isn’t it?

MS: Yes, but again, I don’t know if I’d do it that way. I’ve been working with Eric Roth on the script for a few years now, and we’re – now, actually, yesterday, in this room, and last night – we’re knocking away at this script, and restructuring it, rethinking it. Because it’s convenient to do a sort of detective story, but we all know what it is.

So I want to explore something else, and that is the nature of a whole way of thinking as being complicit in genocide. It’s dehumanising people.

I was out in Oklahoma about six weeks ago, and ultimately, as the Osage told me, it’s about greed. And therefore you could think that these people don’t deserve any of it because they’re not human anyway. Not really human.

That opens up a whole interesting situation, let’s say, with William Hale [the jovial, sinister white local patriarch] and his nephew Ernest, and [his Osage niece-by-marriage] Mollie, beyond even the Bureau of Investigation and [its agent] Tom White, who’s a good man, comes in – he couldn’t pin it on anybody, he couldn’t get evidence – they were all doing it. Or they’re all, at least, complicit in sins of omission. They were quiet about it.

And ultimately that’s the story, the whole idea of the status quo being guilty.

S&S: De Niro is going to be in it?

MS: [Yes, as] Bill Hale. William Hale. Gotta get him in there. And Leo [DiCaprio], I think playing Ernest at this point, the husband. And we haven’t yet settled on Tom White, but… yeah, it’s shifting the story from – since we know what happens and we know certain characters… Then how do you tell the story from the inside rather than from the exterior in? It’s going to take a few more months to get that right.

But I was in Oklahoma, met with the Osage, Chief Standing Bear and his family, and it’s quite remarkable. I was certainly – how shall I put it? – surprised by the landscape. This is very different. I’m more used to the South-west, California, New Mexico – I did a film there. The landscape here is something that I hadn’t anticipated. The space of it. And the isolation is interesting. I mean, we’re just beginning, but I hope to get there, I hope to start shooting it by March or April.

But it’s exciting, and we’re just grappling now, getting the script together. I have to go around, do some travelling, for The Irishman, but these days it’s best just to get to work.

[FragnitoM]

This was a good book and I’ve been waiting awhile now for Marty to get this one going

[ArrestedDevelopment]

Leonardo DiCaprio confirms he and Robert De Niro will star in Martin Scorsese's next movie

Martin Scorsese‘s two favorite leading men are finally coming together in one of his films.

Onstage at the 2020 SAG Awards to present the Life Achievement Award to Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio announced that he and The Irishman actor will both be starring in Scorsese’s next project, Killers of the Flower Moon. The casting had been rumored earlier, but this was the first time someone involved with the movie officially confirmed it.

De Niro and DiCaprio have both collaborated with Scorsese several times individually, but this marks the first time that both men will star in one of the legendary director’s feature films together (though they both appeared in Scorsese’s 2015 short film The Audition, playing fictionalized versions of themselves).

Based on David Grann’s best-selling 2017 nonfiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon tell the story of the 1920s Osage murders, when several Native Americans of the Osage Nation were killed after oil deposits were discovered beneath their Oklahoma land. The murders lead the then-newly formed FBI to the state to investigate. Scorsese’s film is scheduled to begin shooting in Oklahoma this spring, with a screenplay by Eric Roth (A Star Is Born, Forrest Gump).

Scorsese, De Niro, and DiCaprio have all been awards-season fixtures this year; Scorsese and De Niro for The Irishman, and DiCaprio for Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Both films are major players at this year’s Oscars, with 10 nominations each.

https://ew.com/sag-awards/2020/01/19...e-flower-moon/

[CyberpunkCentral]

Cinema!

[Gacivory]

DiCaprio confirmed it on Maron. It’s been confirmed before the SAG Awards.

[ArrestedDevelopment]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

Cinema!

[Elgie]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

DiCaprio confirmed it on Maron. It’s been confirmed before the SAG Awards.

Ha, I totally forgot and I listened to that episode. I do remember Pitt confirming he was working with Damien Chazelle next.

[Cremildo]

Martin Scorsese Calls ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ A “Western” With A “Timeless” Message

In a new interview with Cahiers du Cinema (via Premiere & The Film Stage), Scorsese talks about his new film and why he considers ‘Killers’ to be a Western, even if it takes place in the 20th century.

“We think it’s a Western,” he said. “It happened in 1921-1922 in Oklahoma. They are certainly cowboys, but they have cars and also horses. The film is mainly about the Osage, an Indian tribe that was given horrible territory, which they loved because they said to themselves that Whites would never be interested in it. Then we discovered oil there and, for about ten years, the Osage became the richest people in the world, per capita. Then, as with the Yukon and the Colorado mining regions, the vultures disembark, the White man, the European arrives, and all was lost. There, the underworld had such control over everything that you were more likely to go to jail for killing a dog than for killing an Indian.”

He added, “It’s so interesting to think about the mentality that leads us to this. The history of civilization goes back to Mesopotamia. The Hittites are invaded by another people, they disappear, and later it is said that they have been assimilated or, rather, absorbed. It is fascinating to see this mentality which is reproduced in other cultures, through two world wars. And which is therefore timeless, I think. Finally, this is the film that we are going to try to make.”

[The Swan Returns]

Here’s a video where Scorsese briefly talks up the notion of directing a western one day. He mentions the mythical aspect he’d aim for.

video

[Hoke Moseley]

The film will therefore speak, like Gangs of New York , of the founding of the United States: " Leonardo DiCaprio will play the main role, Bob (De Niro) will return to play William Hale, the" king of the Osage hills ", the man responsible for most of the murders. For the rest, they will be Native American actors.

I'm wondering how big of a role Tom White (who has potential to be a legendary character) will play in the film, since he was a big part of the book.

I'd personally cast Bale, but maybe Scorsese wants to go in another direction with the impact of his character in the film.