We already know that there was a total script overhaul for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio decided that, instead of depicting the point of view of the FBI, they were going to focus on the story of the Osage nation.
Lily Gladstone had stated that ‘Killers’ was a different movie than the one [Scorsese] walked in to make, almost entirely because of what the Osage community had to say about how it was being made and what was being portrayed.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gladstone admitted that, despite signing on to the film, in the original draft of ‘Killers,’ she only had three scenes in the entire movie …
When the “Killers of the Flower Moon” casting directors first contacted her for the film in 2019, Mollie had just three scenes in the screenplay. It was a Martin Scorsese movie, so it wasn’t as if she was going to pass. Gladstone, whose father is Blackfeet and Nez Perce, figured she’d try to land the role and then do what Native American actors too often have to do — try to influence and reshape the role to make it authentic and meaningful.
In the rewrites, she has an hour of screentime — she’s now an Oscar nominee for Lead Actress. Gladstone might even win — it’s either her or Emma Stone.
Eric Roth, who wrote the original ‘Killers’ screenplay, took a crack at the rewrites. However, at some point in the process, Paul Thomas Anderson was hired by Scorsese to take part in rewriting a good portion of the script. I’m actually surprised that this has not been reported yet by any of the trades.
Earlier in the year, after Charles Bramesco spilled the beans on X, I contacted a source of mine who told me that PTA definitely wrote “a big chunk” of the final draft. Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells then checked with a person with ties to ‘Killers’, and his source didn’t pour water on it either. He called PTA “an artist” and said “anything he may have done [rewrite-wise] could have only helped.”
Last month, I decided to contact Roth himself, who is always kind enough to reply to my emails, and his vague response was neither a confirmation nor a denial. I’ll leave it at that.
If you remember, “additional shooting” on ‘Killers’ took place in Pawhuska, Oklahoma back in May 2022. Then we had more reshoots in mid-August of that year, this time in New York City. There have been rumors of extra shooting having taken place a third time back in Oklahoma.
Scorsese wanted an authentic portrayal of Oklahoma’s Osage Community. Osage Nation chief, Geoffrey Standing Bear, even served as a consultant on the movie. It’s quite obvious that the Osage Nation ended up changing ‘Flower Moon’ from what Scorsese originally planned.