Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio & Robert De Niro May Shoot ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Next Year

The big news for Martin Scorsese fans this week was that the director was finally gearing up “The Irishman,” assembling an incredible cast, with cameras set to start rolling next month. Now word comes that the filmmaker might follow his hitman movie with another picture right on its heels.

Speaking with Variety, Scorsese’s longtime production designer Dante Ferretti says that director will shoot the recently announced “Killers Of The Flower Moon” next spring, and that location scouting is already underway. The film would potentially star the heavyweight duo of Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and would tell the true story of members of the Osage Indian nation, who were systematically murdered in the 1920s, after oil was discovered on their land. The FBI came in to investigate — their first major case — and bungled it badly. Here’s the synopsis from by the book by David Grann, from which the movie will be based:

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In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the “Phantom Terror,” roamed—many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection.  Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

It’s powerful stuff, and certainly with Eric Roth (“The Insider,” “Munich,” The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”) writing the script, the potential behind this one is huge. However, I have a bit of trouble believing it will lens so quickly.

Firstly, Scorsese tends to shoot one movie at a time, and especially given how long “The Irishman” shoot will be (filming runs from August to December), not to mention the amount of post-production that will be needed for special effects, and plans for an awards season release date next year, I don’t see the director jumping right into ‘Killer Moon’ until the movie is completely done. Even more, the production company Imperative Entertainment has told Variety that were is no scheduled start, though Ferretti insists he’s going to start prep work on ‘Flower Moon’ in September because Scorsese wants to shoot it “immediately” after “The Irishman.”

We’ll see how it goes, but it if anything, this pretty much confirms where Scorsese will pivot once “The Irishman” is done, whether it’s next spring, or a bit further down the line.