Martin Scorsese has shared more details about his upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon, which could be his first Western.

The director will adapt David Grann’s non-fiction book of the same name, which has been in the works since 2017.

In an interview with French publication Premiere, Scorsese opened up about potential plot details. ”We think it’s a Western,” he said. “It happened in 1921-1922 in Oklahoma.”


”There are certainly cowboys, but they have cars and also horses, the director continued. “The film is mainly about the Osage, an Indian tribe that was given horrible territory, which they loved because they said to themselves that Whites would never be interested in it.”

The film will co-star Robert De Niro, who led Scorsese’s latest film The Irishman, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who worked with Marty on Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Aviator and more.

Delving further into the lands of his next project, Scorsese explained: ”We discovered oil there and, for about ten years, the Osage became the richest people in the world, per capita. Then, as with the Yukon and the Colorado mining regions, the vultures disembark, the White man, the European arrives, and all was lost.

”There, the underworld had such control over everything that you were more likely to go to jail for killing a dog than for killing an Indian.

”The history of civilisation goes back to Mesopotamia. The Hittites are invaded by another people, they disappear, and later it is said that they have been assimilated or, rather, absorbed.


”It is fascinating to see this mentality which is reproduced in other cultures, through two World Wars. And which is therefore timeless, I think. This is the film that we are going to try to make.”

Scorsese’s most recent film The Irishman cast Robert De Niro alongside Joe Pesci and Al Pacino, in a mob story spanning over 60 years. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, but went home empty-handed.

The Irishman is streaming on Netflix now.