The 'Killers of the Flower Moon' Trailer Is Peak Martin Scorsese

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Here’s something to be thankful for: Martin Scorsese doesn’t have a Quentin Tarantino-esque, self-imposed “10 Movies and I’m Out” rule. Now 80 years old, Scorsese has directed upward of 45 (!) films—though he hasn't put his name on a project since 2019's The Irishman. So, it was only a matter of time until he announced his follow-up, Killers of the Flower Moon.

Based on David Grann’s 2017 true crime bestseller, Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI, the upcoming picture will star Scorsese favorites Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The Goodfellas director has been planning this film since the book was released, with Apple racking up $100 million to make it happen. As we saw with The Irishman, Scorsese taking on an existing true (well, sort of true) crime book is almost a guaranteed hit.

In the first official trailer for the film, streaming above, DiCaprio's character enters the violent Osage Nation, where oil has turned the Native American population into millionaires overnight. Of course, the white businessmen of the time would stop at nothing to get their hands on the dough—and we know what that means when it comes to Scorese-directed films. Set to "Stadium Pow Wow" by The Halluci Nation, the trailer shows DiCaprio running around a town, which is raring to blow each other to pieces. We also catch glimpses of the supporting cast, including Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow, and musician Sturgill Simpson.

Killers Of The Flower Moon premiered at May's Cannes Film Festival, but audiences will have to wait until October 6 before we can settle in Osage. Until then, here’s everything we know about Killers Of The Flower Moon so far.

What is Killers of the Flower Moon About?

Grann’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, which debuted in 2017, tells the real-life story of the Osage Native Americans in the 1920s. After outsiders found oil deposits under their land, several wealthy Osage were murdered. Around the same time, the Bureau of Investigation (which later turned into the FBI) was just starting to form. Special agent Tom White took on the case, which led to the arrest of cattleman William Hale, who orchestrated the murders.

In 2020, Scorsese talked a little bit to the French outlet Premiere about the project, which he envisions as something outside of his usual genres of choice: A western.

“We think it’s a Western. It happened in 1921-1922 in Oklahoma. There are certainly cowboys, but they have cars and also horses. 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 ten years, the Osage became the richest people in the world, per capita. Then, as with the Yukon and the Colorado mining regions, the vultures disembark, the White man, the European arrives, and all was lost. There, the underworld had such control over everything that you were more likely to go to jail for killing a dog than for killing an Indian.”

Who Stars In Killers of the Flower Moon?

DiCaprio plays a man named Ernest Burkhart. He's the nephew of the primary antagonist, William Hale (De Niro), the cattleman who ordered some of the Osage murders. Though he was expected to suit up as Tom White, the leader of the investigation, the role eventually went to Jesse Plemons instead. According to IndieWire, DiCaprio pushed for the nephew role—even after the part of White was written for him. "Leonardo [DiCaprio] wanted some things changed that we argued about," screenwriter Eric Roth said after the project was moved from Paramount to Apple. "He won half of [the arguments]. I won half of them. So that’s happening."

Starring alongside DiCaprio is Brendan Fraser as W. S. Hamilton, Hale's corrupt attorney, and Lily Gladstone as Ernest's wife, Mollie Burkhart. It's also notable (and a little unbelievable, when you think about it) that it’ll be the first time De Niro and DiCaprio will share the screen in a Scorsese flick. You have to go all the way back to the era of Baby Leo for their last collaboration together, 1993’s This Boy’s Life.

When Will Killers of the Flower Moon Hit Theaters?

Killers of the Flowers Moon will premiere in select theaters on October 6, with a wide release planned for October 20. Sometime after, the film will make its streaming debut on Apple TV+. For now, think about giving The Irishman a rewatch.

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