When Martin Scorcese, Robert De Niro, and Leonardo DiCaprio are working together on a movie, then you can’t wait for it to come out.
This is exactly the case for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the movie adaption of a non-fiction book written by best-selling author and staff writer of the “New Yorker Magazine” David Grann.
Let’s take a closer look at some fun facts about Killers of the Flower Moon, a very anticipated movie that is scheduled to come out in 2021.
1. The story revolves around a murder investigation
The story is set about 100 years ago in the early 1920s and follows the investigation of a series of murders committed in Osage County, Oklahoma. These murders followed the discovery of oil on the land owned by the Osage People and they are awarded rights to the profits of the oil sales.
In reality, they get systematically murdered, resulting in the death of up to 20 people, which in reality was probably a lot more as the author of the book, David Grann, suggests that 100’s of people were killed because of their relationship with the oil.
The FBI, which was still in its infancy back then, conducted a thorough investigation that involved J. Edgar Hoover and resulted in the arrest of just one man, cattleman William Hale.
2. Scorcese wanted to turn it into a movie after reading the book
Once upon a time, Martin Scorcese sat down and read the book “Killers of the Flower Moon.” He was so intrigued and being a famous movie director and all, that he wanted to turn the story into a movie.
The first thing he did was contact members of the Osage people, so he had a meeting with the current chief named “Standing Bear” to convince them about the prospect of being in the story.
After about 2.5 hours, Mister Bear gave his approval, and the planning of the movie started.
3. DiCaprio and De Niro go back a long time
Leonardo DiCaprio has been the main star of a lot of movies. His beginnings were more humble though and one of the first movies he actually starred in was named “This Boy’s Life” (1993).
He played in this movie together with Robert de Niro, so that’s 28 years before Killers of the Flower Moon will be released!
What makes this even more fascinating is that it was Robert de Niro who introduced DiCaprio to Scorcese after the first movie they shot together.
4. The film rights were initially sold for USD 5 million
David Grann really wrote a winner because he was able to sell the movie rights of his book for USD 5 million! He did so in 2017 when Imperative Entertainment paid this enormous amount.
5. The script was written by the writer of Forrest Gump
The book was turned into a movie script by a famous writer as well, as nobody else than Eric Roth did so.
Roth is famous for writing the scripts of Forrest Gump (1994), The Insider (1999), Munich (2005), and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2008).
6. Filming was expected to begin in February 2019
For some reason, the start of the shooting was moved from February 2019 to March 2020, as reported by Scorsese’s recurring cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto.
Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, this was again moved to an undetermined date at that time.
7. The lead roles were confirmed by Scorcese on Instagram
One of the most remarkable facts about Killers of the Flower Moon movie is that it wasn’t exactly clear who would star in the lead roles. Speculation surrounding the roles has always involved De Niro and DiCaprio though, but nothing was made official.
This wasn’t until Scorcese himself posted on Instagram that both superstars were cast for the movie, and he did so by sharing the news on his Instagram feed on July 29th, 2019.
De Niro will play William Hale (the bad guy) and DiCaprio will play Ernest Burkhart (the bad guy’s henchman).
8. The budget for the movie is huge!
The budget of the movie suddenly rose to USD 200 million, and that got Paramount Pictures a bit nervous apparently. Regardless, there was an intense battle to acquire the rights, even at this price point!
9. Apple bought the production and distribution rights
The unlikely winner of this battle was Apple, who bought both the production and distribution rights of the movie. This will make the movie the biggest film title so far on Apple’s streaming service!
10. Filming is set to commence in February 2021
Without any unexpected events happening, the filming of the movie will start in February 2021. According to Mister Bear, the crew will film for about 16 weeks.
When the movie will come out is unknown at the time of writing this article (August 2020), but we will make sure to keep you informed in case news breaks out.
One last of the most interesting facts about Killers of the Flower Moon: Martin Scorcese referred to this movie as “my first full-on Western movie.”
