Martin Scorsese was supposed to start shooting the $200 million production of “Killers of the Flower Moon” back in March, but the man the pandemic hit and, much like every other shoot in Tinsel Town, a delay happened. ‘Killers, which is set to star Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, is an adaptation of David Grann’s novel, scripted by Eric Roth.
I seem to have missed yesterday’s tidbit that, via a report from Osage News, production for ‘Killers’ has now been reported to February of 2021. Yikes. It turns out that crew on the Scorsese film is now exploring the necessary safety protocols to safely kick production off — after all, Scorsese and De Niro are no spring chickens, both are in their 70s and both have underlying conditions (Scorsese has asthma) that could be worsened by the COVID-19 virus.
A four-month production is planned for the film, which would mean the shoot would wrap up in mid-2021. Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker tend to have fairly extensive editing periods, so one assumes they will be taking their time with this one as well. A likely release date for the film would happen in late 2021 or 2022.
Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto said last week, “Certainly, [“Killers of the Flower Moon”] will be very delicate too because, well, even Martin Scorsese as a director, he has asthma. So we have to be very careful with him.” He added he’ll be using remote heads for close-ups due to safety, saying, “That’s the kind of thing that I learned in the [Taylor Swift music] video that I think I will keep on applying, especially in a film like that. We don’t want De Niro or anybody to touch anything right now.”
Earlier this year, Apple came onboard to finance the film, while Paramount maintained theatrical distribution rights for the film.
The wheels are already turning to lock in a sequel to Greta Gerwig's 2023 blockbuster, and it sounds like an inevitability: "There's no way “Barbie 2” doesn't happen."