One 2023 film has us looking like Charlie Day with a giant board of red confusion, and it’s not Barbie (though that’s up there). It’s Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon. Scorsese’s first film since 2019’s The Irishman, the film is an adaptation of David Grann’s nonfiction book titled Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, which was released in 2017. It is directed by Scorsese with a script written by Scorsese and the perennially Oscar-nominated Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, A Star Is Born, Dune). The film is produced by Paramount and Apple and is a “‘smaller scale’†film with a reported budget of over $200 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Despite being produced by Apple, the film had a theatrical release before being released on its streamer, where Timmy Chalamet will no doubt catch it. Below, the trailer, cast, and everything you need to know about the film ahead of its streaming debut.
What is the true story behind Killers of the Flower Moon?
Based on the nonfiction book of the same name, the film follows the mysterious murders of members of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma during the Roaring ’20s. At the time, the Osage people were incredibly wealthy due to the rich oil deposits found on their land, and a court ruling gave them the right to profit from these resources. This fact made the community a target of local white cattleman William Hale. He and others murdered more than 60 members of the tribe over the course of a decade in an attempt to seize their economic power. At the time, the newly formed FBI investigated the murders and Hale was eventually convicted. According to THR, the original script included a good (white) character as the lead who has since been revised as a man torn between love and Hale, his uncle.
Does the trailer fill us in?
The official trailer was released on July 5 to remind us that America’s history wasn’t all fireworks and barbecues. Instead, we have a gray-tinted, murderous historical epic about the destruction of a people over oil, or, as they’d call it here, “black gold.†It’s a propulsive trailer, soundtracked to “Stadium Pow Wow†by the Halluci Nation, filled with gunshots, fights, and ominous lines delivered by Robert De Niro. And there’s lots and lots of money. The kind of money people kill for. Then, the second official trailer, released September 13, gave up a little more of the plot — showing how culpable DiCaprio’s character Ernest Burkhart is in the murders and how insidious the “love story†at the center of the story gets. “We mix these families together and if that estate money flows in the right direction, it’ll come to us,†De Niro intones. There is one moment of levity — when Lily Gladstone does her adorable giggle and DiCaprio’s flirting. Award her!
Set to B. Dolan’s “The Devil Is Alive†and mixed with the typical 2023 sound effects that add bombast, the final trailer packs in moments of intrigue. Clearly intended to reach an audience outside the “film bro†category, this trailer refers to Scorsese as “the director of The Wolf of Wall Street†and features guns, jewelry ripping, explosions, and DiCaprio saying the line “I’m not in any kind of trouble at all,†coupled with a bunch of shots of all the trouble he is, in fact, in.
How did Martin Scorsese approach the Osage murders?
While the book focuses on FBI agent Tom White, who solved the mystery in one of the bureau’s first major cases, Scorsese and his lead, Leonardo DiCaprio, had no interest in serving up a white-savior story. Instead, the film trains its lens on the twisted Burkhart (DiCaprio), a white man married to Osage tribe member Mollie (Lily Gladstone) while he and his uncle Bill Hale (Robert De Niro) are actively killing Osage people — including poisoning his wife.
“Here you had the wealthiest nation, the richest per capita people in the world,†DiCaprio told Deadline. “You had this melting pot in Oklahoma where freed slaves had created their own economy, and the Osage emerged as this wealthy culture. But you also had, during that period, the rise of the KKK and white supremacy and this clash of cultures. For some of these white settlers, it was like a gold rush to take advantage of people of color.â€
A previous version of the script followed the FBI agent. “There’s no mystery,†Scorsese told Deadline about the first draft. “So, what is it? A police procedural? Who cares! We’ve got fantastic ones on television.†His disillusionment with the straightforward story of Tom White led him to delve into the “mindset of the people who did this†for something a little more complex — like a fucked-up love and institutional racism that allowed these murders to go on for so long.
“It made the most sense to show what’s going on in that world, the dynamic between the nephew and the uncle,†De Niro told Deadline. “[Hale] believed he loved them and felt they loved him. But within that, he felt he had the right to behave the way he did.â€
Who’s in the cast?
As you might expect from a Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon has a stacked cast. Ernest Burkhart will be portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio with his uncle, Bill Hale, is set to be played by newcomer Robert De Niro. Other big names include recent Oscar winner Brendan Fraser, who plays Hale’s attorney, and Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons as FBI agent White. Indigenous actress Lily Gladstone (First Cow) is Mollie Burkhart. And it turns out Jack White of the White Stripes will have a “small role.â€
What are the reviews from Cannes?
Generally, it was a rave, with Lily Gladstone as the major selling point. “In so many ways, though, this is Lily Gladstone’s movie,†Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri wrote out of Cannes. “She plays Mollie with a mix of standoffishness and exhausted hope. She can tell early on that Ernest is out for her money. So is every white man around her.†Scorsese’s direction also scored raves, with Vox critic Alissa Wilkinson writing, “Scorsese adapts David Grann’s stunning work of historical nonfiction with his own particular touch: This is in part a movie about how the bootstrapping American ethic lends itself to organized crime among the enterprising, and in part an uneasily self-reflective questioning of turning people’s real-life trauma into entertainment. It’s magnificent.â€
When is the release date?
The film will first go into wide release in theaters on October 20 and stream on Apple TV+ beginning Friday, January 12. And if you happened to be vacationing in France this summer, the film officially debuted at the Cannes Film Festival May 20 at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Hurry, find a wall for Post-its and maps covered in red string.
Wait, how long is it?
It’s three hours and 26 minutes, or one Avatar: The Way of Water plus a 14-minute YouTube video explaining it.
This post has been updated.