Martin Scorsese was “concerned” Killers of the Flower Moon draft focused on “white guys”

Martin Scorsese has revealed that he rewrote the script for Killers of the Flower Moon because it was focusing too much on “white guys.”

At long last, Martin Scorsese’s anticipated book adaptation Killers of the Flower Moon is set to hit Apple TV+ very soon.

Based on David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book of the same name, the follows is about the FBI’s investigation into a string of murders among the Osage Nation in the early 1920s. 

Scorsese is currently doing press for the film and recently gave fans a glimpse into his mind as he recounted the film’s extensive re-write process.

Scorsese pivoted Killers of the Flower Moon’s perspective

During his interview with Time magazine as part of their Time 100 Leadership Series, Scorsese recalled how the film was originally supposed to be a straight adaptation of the book with Leonardo DiCaprio set to play the head FBI investigator, Tom White.

However, he began to realize that the film, which is a haunting depiction of what happened to the Osage Nation in the 1920s, was skewing to much into the wrong point of view.

“After a certain point, I realized I was making a movie about all the white guys,” Scorsese said, “Meaning I was taking the approach from the outside in, which concerned me.”

Scorsese then explained how he and his co-writer, Eric Roth, completely rewrote the movie’s script and made White a background character, now played by Jesse Plemons.

They changed the perspective of the film by writing DiCaprio as the morally gray Ernest Burkhart, a World War I veteran who gets wrapped up in his uncle’s scheme to steal riches away from the Osage Nation.

The new script now revolves around Ernest and his marriage to Mollie (Lily Gladstone), an Osage woman, and how their relationship becomes extremely complicated as they deal with the murders and the FBI’s arrival to investigate.

Killers of the Flower Moon hits cinemas on October 20. Find out more about it here, and you can see more of our upcoming film coverage, check out the hubs below:

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