After Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and Wolf of Wall Street, Academy Award winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are back together again.
On Monday, Apple Studios released the first photo from the duo’s upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon. Based on author David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, the Scorsese-led project recounts a string of brutal murders that occurred in Oklahoma in the 1920s.
Sometimes known as the “Reign of Terror” or the “Osage Indian murders,” the killings targeted members of the Osage Indian nation who had become wealthy thanks to striking oil on their land. The death toll isn’t known exactly, but is estimated to be in the dozens.
In the film, DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of an influential and power-hungry rancher played by Robert De Niro. DiCaprio is opposite actor Blackfeet and Nez Perce descendant Lily Gladstone as Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman who falls in love with Ernest.
This first photo from the film depicts, at least according to Apple’s press release, a scene from early in Kyle and Burkhart’s relationship: “Mollie invites him in for a meal and they form a bond.” Dig into this horrific account any deeper and you’ll know it doesn’t stop there.
Directed and produced by Scorsese from a screenplay co-written with the legendary Eric Roth, Killers of the Flower Moon is expected sometime later this year, and will feature supporting performances from Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, William Belleau, Jason Isbell, Louis Cancelmi, Scott Shepherd, Sturgill Simpson, and others.