Leonardo DiCaprio Calls Martin Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON a Masterpiece
Martin Scorsese has been hard at work developing his next big film project, Killers of the Flower Moon, and according to the film’s costume designer, Jacqueline West, Leonardo DiCaprio is offering high praise for the film. He says the movie is a masterpiece.
West recalled a conversation with the actor during an appearance at the Doha Film Institute, telling Deadline: "I was talking to Leo about it. We had lunch before I came here. He said, 'Jackie, I think we worked on a masterpiece.' I thought for Leo to say that, was something. He doesn’t say that lightly. He has been in the business since he was a little boy."
I’m not really surprised, Scorsese seems to make one movie masterpiece after another and this film sounds like it’s going to be incredible.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the film as Ernest Burkhart and he is joined by Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart, an Osage married to Ernest, who is nephew of a powerful local rancher, who is played by Robert De Niro. Brendan Fraser (The Mummy) also stars in the movie.
The film is based on David Grann’s novel, and the story is set in 1920s Oklahoma. It depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. Here’s a description of the story:
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Osage Indians were driven onto a presumed worthless expanse of land in northeastern Oklahoma. But their territory turned out to be atop one of the largest oil deposits in the United States; to obtain that oil, prospectors were required to pay the tribe for leases and royalties. By the 1920s, the members of Osage Nation had become the wealthiest people per capita in the world. And then the Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.
While previously talking about the film, screenwriter Eric Roth shared: “This was a unique story that I knew nothing about. It showed my ignorance. I thought, ‘It’s unbelievable, it could be a Western.’ Marty’s never done a Western. It’s the first time you’ll see a street scene where there’s 90 percent Native American indigenous people, and 1 or 2 percent Caucasians.”
Roth also said that he utilizes “a lot of Western tropes” in the story. He also teased something special planned for the end credits, saying: “I came up with an incredible way to do the end credits, which you’ve never seen. He wrote me a text the other day: ‘I’m going to shoot our end credits in a couple days.’ I was so happy that he’s doing that.”
He also explained that this movie is “nothing we’ve ever seen” and that it’ll be “one for the ages,” saying:
“I know Marty’s trying to make a movie that’s probably the last Western that would be made like this, and yet, with this incredible social document underneath it, and the violence and the environment. I think it’ll be like nothing we’ve ever seen, in a way. And so this one is, to me, one for the ages.”
I can’t wait to watch this!