Apple lands Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon starring De Niro and DiCaprio

Apple lands troubled Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio after creative and budget problems led to bidding war between top studios

Apple Inc is signing on to produce director Martin Scorsese’s next film Killers of the Flower Moon, insiders confirmed Wednesday
Paramount Pictures the project last year but allowed Scorsese’s team to shop it around after its budget ballooned to over $200million
Apple beat out top studios MGM, Universal and Netflix in a battle over the film
Killers of the Flower Moon is based on David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction bestseller
It’s about a string of killings of Native Americans in Oklahoma in the 1920s

By Megan Sheets For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:33 BST, 28 May 2020 | Updated: 16:56 BST, 28 May 2020

Apple Inc has reportedly landed director Martin Scorsese’s next film Killers of the Flower Moon starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro following a fierce battle between studios.

Paramount Pictures acquired the project last year but allowed Scorsese’s team to shop it around after its budget ballooned to over $200million, creating both financial and creative issues.

All of Hollywood’s top studios clamored to get their hands on the film, including MGM, Universal and streaming giant Netflix, which produced Scorsese’s last film The Irishman.

But it was Apple that came out victorious in the battle for the film, which will be it’s biggest foray into film yet under its streaming service launched last November.

Deadline, which was first to report the news, said that the movie will be labeled an Apple Original Film, with Paramount distributing it theatrically.

Apple Inc has reportedly landed director Martin Scorsese’s next movie Killers of the Flower Moon following a fierce battle between studios. Scorsese is pictured with the film’s stars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in 2018

Killers of the Flower Moon is based on author David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

The book is a mystery about a string of murders of wealthy Osage Native Americans in Oklahoma in the early 1920s, after oil deposits were discovered beneath their land.

The ensuing investigation established the Federal Bureau of Investigation and marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of America from its frontier era.

Paramount expressed concerns about the film’s budget early on, even before the coronavirus pandemic brought Hollywood production to a screeching halt.

Scorsese, DiCaprio, De Niro and the film’s producers at Imperative Entertainment, which paid $5million for the book rights, were insistent on it being a large scale Western, sources told Deadline.

The script underwent several rewrites to rein in the cost, which was projected to surpass $200million after tax credits from an Oklahoma location shoot.

But ultimately Paramount heads determined that they liked the original script, written by Eric Roth, better than the rewrites and gave Scorsese and DiCaprio’s manager Rick Yorn the green light to look for other funding sources.

Killers of the Flower Moon is based on author David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

This is the second major movie acquisition Apple has made in recent days after it acquired Greyhound, a World War II movie starring Tom Hanks that previously was at Sony Pictures.

Hanks also wrote the movie, which is based on the Battle of the Atlantic.

Scorsese’s last film, The Irishman, also ended up switching hands during development after Paramount balked at its $200million budget and Netflix stepped in to take over.

The film received 10 Academy Award nominations last year but ultimately went home empty-handed.

Paramount declined to comment about the purported deal with Apple on Killers of the Flower Moon.

The film is highly anticipated in part because of the reunion of De Niro and DiCaprio, who haven’t worked on a major film together since This Boy’s Life in 1993.

Scorsese has worked with both actors separately on numerous films.

De Niro and DiCaprio are pictured with Scorsese when he received the Cecil B DeMille Award at the 67th Annual Golden Globes in 2010

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: SYNOPSIS

Below is the synopsis for David Grann’s 2017 bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

‘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, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

‘Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.

‘In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, ‘the Phantom Terror,’ roamed – virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.

‘A true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.’

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