Following the enticing teaser trailer that arrived in May, the official trailer has now been released for Martin Scorsese‘s highly anticipated next film, the Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro-starring Killers of the Flower Moon.
Based on David Grann’s 2017 best-selling nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the film is set in 1920s Oklahoma and 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. Oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight. The sudden wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting to murder. The story is told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone, who’s mentioned as a standout in many reviews).
Scorsese has been attempting to get this one off the ground since around 2016 – and, well, it looks like it will have been well worth the wait. The trailer shows off a gritty Scorsese picture, a large-scale historical epic (with a budget reportedly in the $US200 million range) that, according to the early rave reviews that came from the Cannes premiere, serves as a timely study on themes such as racial violence and nationalism. Oh, and you’re going to want to visit the bathroom before viewing this one: the film has a runtime of 3 hours and 26 minutes.
The ensemble includes Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, and John Lithgow. Scorsese penned the adapted screenplay with Oscar winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Dune, A Star is Born), and reunites with both cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (The Irishman, The Wolf of Wall Street) and editor Thelma Schoonmaker (The Departed, The Aviator).
Killers of the Flower Moon will be opening in select U.S. cinemas on October 6th, before opening wide on October 20th. The film opens in Australian cinemas on October 19th. The film will then be released globally on streaming service Apple TV+.
