Scorsese's ‘Killers of the Flower Moon' Adds Jesse Plemons as FBI Agent

Jesse Plemons has been cast for a lead role in Martin Scrosese’s upcoming Western drama “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Plemons was a supporting player in the director’s last movie (“The Irishman”).

Per THR: “Plemons will play Tom White, the lead FBI agent investigating the murders.” The role of Tom White was originally written forLeonardo DiCaprio when the film was being developed for Paramount, the idea being to have DiCaprio star as the traditional good guy of the movie. As THR adds: “Plemons now finds himself in a role that was originally going to be played by DiCaprio before the Oscar-winner segued to a secondary lead.”

The script revisions on “Killers of the Flower Moon” aren’t anything new.

A lot has been happening behind-the-scenes on the upcoming Martin Scorsese-directed film “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The film, starring Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio, has had its budget balloon to close to $225 million in the past few months, with Paramount having to sell off distribution and creative rights to Apple. However, we haven’t had much info in terms of the ins-and-outs as to why such a startling set of events even occurred, until now.

Thanks to a report from THR, it seems as though the script was severely altered and the role that DiCaprio was supposed to play (which now Plemons has) got switched around. DiCaprio was set to play the role of the hero of the film, who worked for the just-formed FBI, but then Scorsese had a change of heart, took another look at the script and made revisions, turning DiCaprio’s role from the good guy to the nephew of Robert De Niro’s villainous character. Paramount started to worry, seeing the film turn from a mainstream crime thriller to a moody and intimate film that still required a $200+ million budget. Enter Apple to save the day, they offered to cover the costs as long as they could take creative control of the film.

During a podcast appearance last November, “Flower Moon” screenwriter Eric Roth noted his frustrations with DiCaprio about the changes to his script, “That’s supposed to start filming in March once the Covid clears out, and it’s Martin Scorsese. They’ll be continuing rewrites with that. Leonardo [DiCaprio] wanted some things changed that we argued about. He won half of [the arguments]. I won half of them. So that’s happening.”Paramount still holds the worldwide options to distribute the film in theaters, but Apple TV now has the rights to stream the film, giving Scorsese the theatrical run he never really had with Netflix on “The Irishman.”

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is set to start shooting in April.