Martin Scorsese recently revealed the setback he received when Paramount Pictures backed out from his movie Killers of the Flower Moon.
Martin was told point blank that the overhauled script of the movie was not what Paramount Pictures had agreed to, adding that the rejection came even before the new script was finalized.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Scorsese recalled Paramount executives telling him, “We backed the other version, we can’t back this one.”
According to Variety, Killers of the Flower Moon was originally planned to follow David Grann’s 2017 book as agreed by both the writers Scorsese himself and his co-writer Eric Roth.
He revealed that they both worked on the script that followed the perspective of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI officers) who investigated the string of murders in Osage nation in 1920; Paramount was willing to back this script.
Leonardo DiCaprio, who was signed to play the role of Tom White in the movie, objected to the script, asking the director that the movie’s script should follow the perspective of Osage as they were the heart of the story, leading to the overhauling of the movie script. As a result of this, Paramount backed out.
Scorsese was able to get Apple to finance the $200 million movie, Paramount also rejoined as a distribution partner.
The movie is scheduled for release in theatres on October 20, 2023.