The rumor that Jesse Plemons was the lead in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and Leonardo DiCaprio had a supporting role, always felt kind of off. In other words, it didn’t make an iota of sense.
I’m glad this rumor has been sorted out tonight as Variety is reporting that DiCaprio will indeed have the lead role in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming epic, with Plemons and Robert DeNiro going Supporting.
No word yet on Lily Gladstone, who will play a key part in the film. Will she be campaigned as Lead Actress or Supporting? Regardless, there’s been major buzz around her performance
“While Apple hasn’t had any obvious contenders so far this year, the good news is that Martin Scorsese is head down on the anticipated “The Killers of the Flower Moon” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jesse Plemons. Notorious for a lengthy post-production process, Scorsese hasn’t released anything except a single still image, so no one knows anything else about it. Variety has exclusively confirmed that despite early rumblings that DiCaprio had switched to a supporting role, he is in fact one of the leads, and will campaign in the lead actor category during the awards season. His co-star Plemons, fresh off his “Power of the Dog” Oscar nom, will campaign for supporting actor. The non-fiction book by David Grann on which “Flowers” is based centers on Plemons’ FBI agent character, but it’s unknown which direction screenwriter Eric Roth and Scorsese will take.”
A May 2020 THR report had reported that Eric Roth’s script was severely altered and the role that DiCaprio was originally supposed to play was given to Plemons.
DiCaprio was set to play the role of the hero of the film, who worked for the just-formed FBI, but then Scorsese/Roth 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 about these rewrites, 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.