Martin Scorsese is wasting no time getting to work on his next project, as he’s set to create an adaptation of the book Killers of the Flower Moon.
The filmmaker’s new creation, The Irishman, has only just been released on Netflix, and with a huge cast including Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci – plus a three hour, 30 minute run-time – it’s safe to say it was a big project.
Scorsese’s hard work obviously paid off as the film has been met with rave reviews, but rather than take a well-earned break he’s already thinking about what’s next.
News of the adaptation first arose in 2017, the same year Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI was published.
The non-fiction book is written by David Grann and tells the story of one Osage Native American family. The Osage were driven onto one of the richest oilfields in America, and the initial oil rush during the first quarter of the 20th century resulted in their mass murder.
The case was one of the first ever to be taken on by the FBI, which fought to get to the bottom of the crimes.
Though the concept of Scorsese’s adaptation has been around for a couple of years it seems to be only just getting off the ground, as Scorsese’s frequent cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto revealed filming is set to begin in May next year, Collider reports.
The script is being penned by Eric Roth, the man behind Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Leonardo DiCaprio and DeNiro are thought to be reuniting with the filmmaker to bring the book to life.
Though the start date for filming Killers of the Flower Moon may change, the proposed date may provide an explanation as to why DiCaprio backed out of Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming film Nightmare Alley, which starts shooting at the same time.
Prieto and Scorsese have been scouting and doing preliminary camera tests for the film in Oklahoma, and earlier this year Paramount Pictures came aboard to finance and distribute Killers of the Flower Moon.
The cinematographer admitted Scorsese’s adaptation is only in the very early stages and explained he is ‘in the process’ of researching different ways of shooting the film before proposing them to the filmmaker.
He told Collider:
[Scorsese] will probably have his thoughts too, but we still haven’t figured [out the tone of the film].
Prieto and Scorsese collaborated on both The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman, indicating they work spectacularly together, and if DiCaprio and DeNiro confirm their appearances then the upcoming film will have all the ingredients needed to be a great success.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.