Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio working together on one film. It's the sort of dream team you'd hope for, but doubt could ever happen, yet that is what Imperative Entertainment is aiming to bring to reality with the adaptation of true crime book Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI.
David Grann's tome, which has just hit bookshelves, digs into a particularly dark chapter of American history. It chronicles what happened when members of the Osage Indian nation discovered oil beneath their land in the 1920s. They instantly became among the richest people in the world and all seemed to be going well for them, util they started to die under mysterious circumstances. Turns out a conspiracy had sprung up among wealthy landowners and oil barons elsewhere to have the new competition either killed, or to assign "caretakers" to make sure the freshly wealthy natives didn't "squander" their money. Conveniently, many of those assigned held the deed to the land should their charges die...
Things got so bad that the federal government stepped in, and a young J. Edgar Hoover made a name for himself as he led the investigation.
Deadline cautions that this is still at an early stage – no one would go on record – but that the trio is apparently seriously considering the idea. That's in addition to Scorsese and De Niro still trying to figure out a deal at Netflix for The Irishman, but battling budget concerns and potential legal woes from that true-crime tale.
Grann's work has already been adapted for the screen – his book The Lost City Of Z is already out here and hit US cinemas this week, while Old Man And The Gun is in production.