Staff Reporter | On 18, Feb 2021

Jesse Plemons has joined Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon

The actor, who has stolen scenes in everything from Breaking Bad to Game Night and enjoyed a rare lead role in Black Mirror’s USS Callister, will take centre stage in the Apple TV+ film.

The film, based on David Grann’s book of the same name, tells a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation. In desperation, its young director, J Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro have long been attached to the project, but Plemons’ addition to the cast sees him take the role that was once going to the Titanic star. Plemons will play Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of a powerful local rancher (De Niro). He will be joined by Lily Gladstone, already cast as Ernest’s wife, Mollie Burkhart.to

The casting comes after some reports of disagreements between writer Eric Roth and DiCaprio, but also comes as Plemons was preparing to play another key role in Jordan Peele’s later role. With the two production schedules ultimately conflicting, Plemons has dropped out of the latter to join Flower Moon, which will start filming this May. With him fresh from a co-lead turn in Netflix’s I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, expect Plemons to continue getting top-billing offers from now on.

 

Lily Gladstone joins Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Moon

12th February 2021

Lily Gladstone has joined the cast of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Moon.

The film, based on David Grann’s book of the same name, is an Apple Original production for Apple TV+. The book tells a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation. In desperation, its young director, J Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are already attached to the project, with the latter reuniting after Scorsese’s Netflix film The Irishman. Gladstone will play Mollie Burkhart, married to Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio), who is the nephew of a powerful local rancher (De Niro).

Gladstone, who had a breakout role in Certain Women, has since reunited with director Kelly Reichardt for First Cow (pictured above) and was most recently in Sundance short Little Chief and SXSW-selected Freeland.

The script is by Eric Roth, while Scorsese will produce through Imperative Entertainment, alongside Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas, and Appian Way Productions. The project joins a growing number of star-studded original films in the works at Apple, including Lessons in Chemistry starring Brie Larson and Ridley Scott’s Kitbag, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

 

Apple and Paramount team up for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon

28th May 2020

Apple has boarded Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

The film, based on David Grann’s book of the same name, has been in the works for a while at Paramount, but budget concerns have held the project back. Starting out at Imperative Entertainment, which acquired the book in 2016, Scorsese came on board along with star Leonardo DiCaprio, before taking it to Paramount.

Now, Paramount has turned to Apple to help foot the reported $200m-plus bill, with the tech giant set to be the creative studio for the film, making it an Apple Original production. The deals aren’t yet officially signed off, but sources tell Deadline and Variety that the agreement’s all but closed.

The book, from the author of The Lost City of Z, tells a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI’s first major homicide investigations. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation. In desperation, its young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery.

Paramount will distribute the film in cinemas, at Scorsese’s insistence, after his previous film, The Irishman, was snapped up by Netflix, which gave it a short theatrical run. The deal with Apple, though, is something of a coup for the Netflix rival, giving the fledgling Apple TV+ its biggest movie title so far when it eventually is released as a streaming exclusive on the platform. The deal follows another major move from Apple TV+ to acquire Tom Hanks WWII film Greyhound, after its planned theatrical release was scuppered by the coronavirus lockdown.

The question of when Killers of the Flower Moon can begin production, though, is another matter entirely.

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