Apple Original Films has set a fall theatrical release date for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the Western crime drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, which the studio is distributing in partnership with Paramount Pictures.
The film, which Scorsese and screenwriter Eric Roth adapted from David Grann’s best-selling 2017 non-fiction book, will open limited on Friday, Oct. 6, and wide on Friday, Oct. 20 before streaming globally on Apple TV+.
The Killers of the Flower Moon story centers on an FBI investigation of a series of murders of the Osage people that took place in Oklahoma in the early 1920s, and became known as the Reign of Terror after oil was discovered on tribal land. DiCaprio, in his sixth teaming with Scorsese, plays Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of cattleman William Hale (Robert De Niro). Gladstone, who is of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu heritage and first broke out in Kelly Reichardt’s 2017 film Certain Women, plays Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman who has inherited an oil fortune. The cast also includes Jesse Plemons as Tom White, a former Texas Ranger investigating the murders, and Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion and Tantoo Cardinal.
Killers of the Flower Moon was first set up at Paramount in 2019, with Apple coming aboard in May of 2020 to co-finance and co-distribute the film. After a production delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, principal photography began in April of 2021 in Oklahoma.
Historically, most of Apple’s original movies have either appeared exclusively on the streaming service or have been released in a small number of theaters. But according to Bloomberg, Apple now plans to spend $1 billion a year to produce movies that will be released in theaters, part of a plan to raise its profile in Hollywood and market its streaming service. Despite its newcomer status and smaller number of films than streaming competitors, Apple has already released a best picture winner, 2021’s CODA, which the studio acquired at Sundance for a record $25 million.
Killers of the Flower Moon was produced by Imperative Entertainment, Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio’s Appian Way.
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