Last time Scorsese got a $200 million budget from a streaming service, uniting past collaborators in the process, we got the critically acclaimed film The Irishman on Netflix. Lightening perhaps will strike twice as Scorsese unites his former leading man, Robert De Niro, with his more recent protege Leonardo DiCaprio for Killers of the Flower Moon. It's a project that DiCaprio and Scorsese have been eyeing for years and Scorsese's regular distributor, Paramount Pictures, is set to continue in that capacity for worldwide theatrical distribution of the film. However, the actual backers of the movie will be Apple TV+ (Where DiCaprio's production company Appian Way recently signed to develop and distribute their future projects). Now, according to a report by Indiewire, Scorsese is reportedly set to begin production early next year.
Based on the book of the same name by author David Grann, the Western-style tale focuses on the true story about a string of murders of members of the Osage nation that occurred in Oklahoma in the 1920's. An interesting fact to the case was the victims had each recently discovered oil beneath their land before they were killed. The slayings also became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations. The plan seems to be to shoot the fictional retelling of these real world events at the actual locations they took place in. This is based on the report that the real Osage Nation is preparing for a 16-week shoot to occur in February of 2021, with pre-production and crew first set to arrive in November and December beforehand.
The film's script was written by Eric Roth who earlier this year was nominated at the Academy Awards for his adapted screenplay of Bradley Cooper's version of A Star is Born. Hopefully, with that in mind, lightening strikes again for all creative forces involved. Stay tuned!