Martin Scorsese reveals the “biggest challenge” of adapting ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
In a new interview, director Martin Scorsese has revealed the “biggest challenge” in adapting his upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon, a story taken from the 2017 book by David Grann. Notably, Grann also wrote The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, which was made into a 2017 film starring Charlie Hunnam.
Scorsese explained the process of bringing the book to life in an exclusive new interview with Deadline. He said: “The biggest challenge became pulling off the trick of not making this a mystery, but exposing Ernest early on for who he is and then watching this very twisted relationship unravel. Not only with Mollie, but also with De Niro’s character as well. That wasn’t easy and it took years to figure out.”
It took so many years that Scorsese even made 2019’s The Irishman in between. “There was just more and more development,” the star of Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonardo DiCaprio, adds.
DiCaprio added: “The script is based on an amazing book, but when I spoke with David Grann after we had this idea, he was all for it. He said that getting into a forensic look at the culture at that time, the clash between white America and the Indigenous people, would be the perfect way to tell the story, if it could be done. I really think we accomplished that. At the end of the day, it works.”
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