Martin Scorsese returns with tense 'Killers of the Flower Moon' trailer (original) (raw)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, and Jesse Plemons team up for the Western crime drama — which is almost guaranteed to be an Oscars contender.
Published on May 18, 2023 09:19AM EDT
It's been four years since Martin Scorsese's last film, the sprawling gangster saga The Irishman. Now, the legendary director returns with his much-anticipated next project: Killers of the Flower Moon.
After years of development and cryptic teases, Scorsese finally shared the first trailer for his crime drama, unveiling a first look at stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, and Jesse Plemons. The film is adapted from David Grann's true-crime book of the same name, which recounts the notorious murders of wealthy Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma.
Like the book it's based on, the film chronicles how members of the Osage tribe struck it rich, after discovering oil deposits upon their land. These wealthy landowners were soon targeted by their white neighbors, who harassed and even murdered more than 60 members of the Osage tribe in an attempt to seize their wealth.
The tense first trailer introduces DiCaprio as Oklahoma resident Ernest Burkhart with Lily Gladstone as his Osage wife Mollie. The pair embrace, but in a voiceover, Ernest alludes to "hungry wolves" circling in the shadows — including his own uncle, local cattle baron Bill Hale (De Niro).
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in 'Killers of the Flower Moon'. Apple TV+
Much of the book centers on federal agent Tom White, who helped untangle the case for the then-nascent Federal Bureau of Investigations. At the time, the FBI was only a few years old, and bureau chief J. Edgar Hoover personally sent White to Oklahoma to investigate. Scorsese has said that original drafts of the script focused more on White, but he and DiCaprio had no interested in making a "police procedural," and they instead chose to shift the focus to Ernest and Mollie. (DiCaprio was originally attached to play White, but he instead chose to play Ernest, with Plemons taking over the previous role.)
In April, Scorsese took the stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, where he opened up about how he and the cast wanted to do right by Grann's book. "I couldn't have made this picture without collaborators who are remarkable and were totally dedicated to bringing this story to life on an epic scale," Scorsese said at the time. "So, I needed actors who are really brave enough to play very complicated central characters, extremely complicated, and I turned to a remarkable young actress named Lily Gladstone." To fill out the rest of the cast, he added, he also recruited DiCaprio and De Niro — "a few guys I've worked with on a few other occasions," he joked.
Killers of the Flower Moon opens in select theaters Oct. 6 before expanding on Oct. 20, and then streaming worldwide on Apple TV+ (date to be announced later). Watch the trailer above.
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