Martin Scorsese Will Reportedly Join Forces With De Niro and DiCaprio for New Film

The Irishman won’t be released on select theater screens and Netflix until *checks calendar* autumn 2019 but, regardless, Martin Scorsese has already moved onto his next project, the serial killer drama Killers of the Flower Moon. 

Now, it was already expected that longtime Scorsese collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio would be starring in Killers of the Flower Moon, but now it’s also being reported that other longtime Scorsese collaborator Robert De Niro will be joining that picture as well.

DiCaprio and De Niro’s teaming up represents the third time they’ve done so, though it’s been awhile, as they previously filled two roles in the cast of the 1993 drama This Boy’s Life, and also locked down a pair of roles in 1996’s Marvin’s Room. Additionally, this development will mark a wish made for De Niro, as it’s the first time that he, DiCaprio, and Scorsese will combine their acting powers for the same feature-length picture, though they previously all teamed up for a short film/commercial titled The Audition.

According to Movieweb, Killers of the Flower Moon will have a plot that centers on the FBI’s rise to prominence after investigating several suspicious deaths of Native Americans around land sitting atop newly discovered oil. More specifically, they wrote that the movie will be about this:

Set in 1920s Oklahoma, where the Osage Indians were granted revenue rights to oil discovered under their lands that was harvested by oil companies. Suddenly, they began to get murdered as did those trying to investigate. It came down to the newly created Bureau of Investigation, to overcome the corrupting influences from oil money and politics to solve the murder mystery, one that would bring the FBI to prominence.

Movieweb further reports that earlier this past week Scorsese met with Osage Nation’s Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear about how the area could benefit financially from the film’s production. During this meeting Scorsese is said to have assured Standing Bear that De Niro will be in the movie. A report from Tulsa World has De Niro pegged for the role of William Hale, who was the cattleman convicted of the Osage Nation murders.

DiCaprio last worked with Scorsese in 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, and got an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in that lead role. Leo also acted under the direction of Martin in Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and someday Roosevelt. Meanwhile De Niro will be in the upcoming The Irishman, which is yet to set a firm release date due to the unforeseen difficulty of digitally de-aging himself, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. Prior to that he worked with Scorsese in Casino back in 1995. Before that there was, damn: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, New York, New York, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas and Cape Fear.

At the moment it’s looking like The Irishman will make its premiere on night one of the 2019 New York Film Festival, which begins on September 27. As for the current schedule for Killers of the Flower Moon, preproduction is set for November 2019, shooting will take place next spring/summer, and the unconfirmed but expected release date would appear to be in the non-specific fall/winter of 2020.