Martin Scorsese may have retired from gangster films, but he’s not riding into the sunset just yet.
After months of anticipation, the “Irishman” director announced that his latest film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” will be a Western, marking a genre first for the man who made the mob his muse, reports IndieWire.
The project will reportedly star Leonardo DiCaprio, 45, and Robert De Niro, 76, in the duo’s first on-screen collaboration in 24 years. DiCaprio, De Niro and Scorsese have never worked together on a film, despite their illustrious film histories.
“We think it’s a Western,” Scorsese, 77, tells Premiere of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which is based on David Grann’s book of the same name. The nonfiction work chronicles the Osage Nation Murders, when Native Americans in Oklahoma were massacred in the early 20th century after oil was discovered on their land.
“It happened in 1921-1922 in Oklahoma,” says Scorsese, adding that this particular Wild West had both cowboys and cars. “The film is mainly about the Osage, an Indian tribe that was given horrible territory, which they loved because they said to themselves that whites would never be interested in it. Then, we discovered oil there and, for about 10 years, the Osage became the richest people in the world, per capita.”
Unfortunately, it quickly goes to hell when “vultures disembark, the white man, the European arrives,” Scorsese says.
Scorsese found the story behind his first Western particularly compelling as it depicts a “timeless” struggle dating back to ancient Mesopotamia.
“The Hittites are invaded by another people, they disappear, and later it is said that they have been assimilated or, rather, absorbed,” says Scorsese. “It is fascinating to see this mentality which is reproduced in other cultures, through two world wars.”
Speaking of firsts, “Killers of the Flower Moon” will mark the first time DiCaprio and De Niro have co-starred since acting opposite each other in the 1996 drama “Marvin’s Room,” reports the Independent. DiCaprio announced the pair’s collaboration while introducing “The Irishman” actor who was receiving the Life Achievement award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in January.
Paramount reportedly tapped Scorsese to direct “Killers of the Flower Moon” in June 2019. Production on the Western will start this spring, and the film is slated to hit theaters in 2021.