Martin Scorsese was fortunate to have found a home with Netflix for The Irishman. Why? Because they were one of the few willing to shell out the $159M budget, among the biggest of Scorsese’s career, to make it a reality. Now, as the legendary director is in production on Killers of the Flower Moon, he may need the streamer to come to the rescue once again.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the budget on Killers of the Flower Moon has skyrocketed towards $200M. As a result, he’s in discussion with Netflix, Apple, and other loaded platforms to finance and distribute. If you’re wondering what happened to Paramount, who became attached to the film last year, they’re concerned enough about costs that they’ve allowed Scorsese to shop it around.
At that price, whoever buys it may want to give it a greater theatrical run than The Irishman, which only made $8M in a limited release. Granted, it did score a bunch of Oscar nominations, as well. Killers of the Flower Moon has the same potential. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, centering on the murders of the wealthy Osage Nation tribe in 1920s Oklahoma. The investigation was among the first to include agents that would later become part of the FBI.
