In the early 1920s, members of the Osage Nation are being murdered or dying mysteriously on their land in Oklahoma, which has made them incredibly wealthy due to the vast deposits of oil underneath their feet. World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) comes to live in the town of Gray Horse with his uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro), and soon marries a rich Osage Nation woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone). But Burkhart finds himself drawn into a far-ranging conspiracy that may claim his wife and her entire family.
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Who is in the cast of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’?
At first glance, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ seems tailor-made for master filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Both a crime thriller and a penetrating look at a seemingly forgotten chapter of early 20th century American history, the film is on the surface a true epic. Clocking in at 206 minutes and immersing the viewer in the world of the Osage Nation and the corrupt, nearly lawless environs of the American South that threatened their existence, the film is bolstered by the sterling work of its cast and crew. But Scorsese makes two errors that prevent ‘Killers’ from joining the upper echelons of his filmography, and at points nearly stop the movie in its tracks.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Lily Gladstone and Martin Scorsese in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
In the late 1800s, the U.S. government pushed the Osage Nation out of its native land in Ohio and Mississippi and onto a rough area of Oklahoma known as “Indian territory”. But the joke was on the government, because the land was sitting atop a vast reservoir of oil; by the turn of the 20th century, the Osage were among the wealthiest people in the United States.
All this is laid out succinctly in the opening moments of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” along with the fact that, as the 1920s roll around, members of the Osage are either being outright murdered or passing away from mysterious ailments such as a “wasting disease.” And with the local authorities in the pockets of equally rich white land barons and businessmen who have established themselves in the nearby town of Gray Horse, none of these supremely suspicious deaths are investigated.
Into this toxic situation comes returning WW1 vet Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio), ostensibly looking for work but soon – at the suggestion of his uncle, cattle baron William King Hale (De Niro) — courting and marrying Mollie (Gladstone), whose family is among the richest in the Osage Nation. But as Mollie falls ill and other members of both her family and the Nation continue to perish, it becomes clear that this is all a grand conspiracy to seize the Osage Nation’s oil rights and the immense fortunes that come with them – even as its mastermind, Hale, acts as benefactor, friend, and supporter of the Nation.
With nearly all the local law enforcement either in Hale’s pocket or killed themselves, Mollie and several members of the Nation plead for help from President Calvin Coolidge. He dispatches agents of the newly formed Bureau of Investigation (later known as the FBI), led by Tom White (Jesse Plemons), to get to the bottom of the killings.
(L to R) Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
It’s easy to see why this material appealed to Scorsese: it’s both a generational crime saga – albeit not set in the usual Mafia confines he’s known for – and a searing indictment of the underside of American capitalism and institutional racism, as white interlopers use any means necessary to steal from the Osage what rightfully belongs to them, with – at first – hardly any consequences.
From a technical and artistic standpoint, ‘Killers’ is a marvel in every sense. The sets, the costumes, the period details, and the cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto all capture the texture of life in a very rough part of the United States some 100 years ago. The portrayal of the Osage Nation seems accurate and respectful, and late musicianRobbie Robertson’s powerful yet subtle score combines a throbbing, relentless modern bass line with Indigenous musical cues.
Yet ‘Killers’ falls short in two major areas: the pacing of the film is languid and curiously lacking in tension, as the plot and villains are telegraphed early on and much of the film is filled with odd editing choices – such as the presentation of a murder onscreen after it’s been described at least twice (including in a courtroom scene just prior), making the actual staging of it seem almost gratuitous. Another truly bizarre addition is Scorsese’s final scene, which wraps up the story in a strange expository sequence that nearly takes us out of the film.
But the movie’s biggest flaw is using Ernest Burkhart – an important but secondary player in the book – as the main character. The central character is clearly Mollie Burkhart, although she is relegated to the background for much of the film’s second half. The other major character in the book is BOI agent Tom White (a subdued Plemons, in the role DiCaprio was originally supposed to play), who arrives two-thirds of the way through the film and is also given short shrift as a character. Yet he and Mollie are essentially the moral compasses of the story, while Burkhart appears to have no inner core whatsoever and just allows himself to be manipulated by the people and events around him. This adds to the lack of energy and urgency that this hefty film so desperately needs.
(L to R) Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
It’s kind of astonishing to realize that Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro have not worked together onscreen since 1993’s ‘This Boy’s Life,’ and that the two of them – who have starred in five and nine previous Martin Scorsese pictures, respectively – have never shared the screen under Scorsese’s direction before. So it’s kind of momentous to see them together here.
In the end, however, it’s De Niro who comes across the strongest. His Hale is a masterful portrayal of an unapologetic monster, a man who apparently sees no moral disparity in the way he both seemingly cares for the Osage Nation and ruthlessly plots their slaughter in pursuit of money and power. He remains calm and self-composed, fatherly and yet stern, and professes his love for specific people even as he knows he’s condemning them to death. It’s no secret that Robert De Niro, in the latter stages of his career, has worked in a lot of less than stellar films; but it’s clear that working with his old friend and collaborator brings out the very best in this still vital actor.
As we detail above, DiCaprio is trapped with a character who is positioned as the film’s nominal protagonist (we wouldn’t call him a hero) while also part of the treachery and depravity that drives the film’s narrative. As such, the character seems strangely passive throughout, if not outright stupid at times, his face seems screwed up in a permanent grimace. De Niro’s Hale is clearly defined throughout the movie; DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart is not, and that muddies the good work that Leo is doing. He still delivers in several scenes, especially one between Ernest and Mollie that is one of the few truly heartbreaking moments in a film that should have a lot more of them.
Speaking of which, the third component of the film’s main triumvirate is also its standout. With a modest list of film and TV credits behind her, Lily Gladstone is simply riveting to watch here as Mollie. It’s a shame that the character is waylaid in bed for much of the film’s second half, because Gladstone brings dignity yet humanity to the character – she’s not put on a pedestal as some shining example of an Indigenous person, but is a human being with her own flaws and blind spots. And her grief, rage, and horror as she realizes what is happening to her and her people is palpable and intense.
How Accurate Is The Story?
(L to R) JaNae Collins, Lily Gladstone, Cara Jade Myers and Jillian Dion in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
David Grann’s book is meticulously researched, all the more impressive considering how much of the history of these events remains murky or was outright destroyed as the perpetrators covered their tracks. Scorsese and co-screenwriter Eric Roth may have brought certain aspects of the story forward in a manner that departs from the book, but the major elements of the story remain the same. And it’s the little details that cement the film’s devotion to presenting an accurate portrayal of the Osage Nation and the events of the time.
In fact, some of those details may not be clear to viewers the first time around, especially if one hasn’t read the book. For instance, wealthy Osage members, particularly women, are labeled “incompetents,” deemed incapable of handling their own money. It’s mentioned in the movie often and a perfect example of the level of accuracy and detail that Grann’s book strives for, and which Scorsese, Roth and their team replicate.
Final Thoughts
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is worth seeing for its tremendous performances by Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, and others, as well as its incredible production design, detailed immersion in the world of Gray Horse, Oklahoma and the Osage Nation, and haunting score from Robbie Robertson. But viewers will feel every minute of the film’s three-and-a-half-hour length, and the decision to see most of the story through the eyes of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart is a nearly fatal flaw that robs the film of a point of view or moral center.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ receives 6 out of 10 stars.
(L to R) Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
Based on a true story and told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ tracks the suspicious murders of members of the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight after oil was discovered underneath their land.
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Who is in the cast of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’?
(L to R) Lily Gladstone and Martin Scorsese in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of attending a virtual press conference, along with other members of the press, for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ featuring Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese. The legendary filmmaker discussed his new movie, what attracted him to the story, shooting in Oklahoma, historical accuracy vs. emotional truthfulness, casting Lily Gladstone, reuniting with DiCaprio and De Niro, and the music of the late great Robbie Robertson.
You can read about the press conference below or click on the video player above to watch excerpts from the interview.
Scorsese on Accurately Representing the Osage Community
(L to R) JaNae Collins, Lily Gladstone, Cara Jade Myers and Jillian Dion in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
The iconic director began by discussing how he and his production team went about accurately representing the Osage community in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’
Martin Scorsese: Well at first, it was very important for me, as soon as I saw the book, and I said, “Well, if you want me to be involved with anything that has to do with indigenous people and Native Americans, I had an experience in the 70s where I began to become aware of the nature of what their situation was and still is.” I’d been blindly unaware of that, I was too young. It’s taken me years and I’m fascinated by how do you really deal with that culture in a way that is respectful? How truthful can we be and still have authenticity and respect, dignity and deal with the truth, honestly, as best we can. Having said that, that story, when I read it, indicated to me that this would probably be the one that we could deal with that way. Particularly by getting involved with the culture of the Osage and actually placing cultural elements, rituals, spiritual moments. People talk about mystical realism or something. Now this is real. You see the dream. The dream is real. The ancestors come. So for me, I wanted to know how, I wanted to play with that world in contrast with the white European world. I felt that this could have afforded us the possibility. Ultimately what happened was that we were dealing with the script on the basis of the David Grann’s book, which is excellent, but the book also has the subtitle, the ‘Birth of the FBI.’ For about a year and a half to two years, I was doing ‘The Irishmen’ and that sort of thing, and Eric Roth and I were working and we felt that we took the story of the birth of the FBI as far as we could take it, and I wanted to keep balancing with the Osage and it was getting bigger and bigger and more diffused. Ultimately this was supplemented by the times that we went out to Oklahoma and met with the Osage. My first meeting was with Chief Standing Bear and his group, Julie and Addie Roanhorse and Chad Renfro, and it was very different than what I expected. They were naturally cautious. I had to explain to them that I’m going to try and deal with them as honestly and truthfully as possible. We weren’t going to fall into the trap. We think of the cliche of victims or the drunken Indian, this sort of thing, and yet tell the story as straight as possible. What I didn’t really understand the first couple of meetings was that this is an ongoing situation, an ongoing story out in Oklahoma. In other words, these are things that really weren’t talked about in the generation I was talking to and in the generation before them. It was the generation before them that this happened to and so they didn’t talk about it much. The people involved are still there, meaning the families are still there, the descendants are still there. What I learned from meeting with them, having dinners with them, including Margie Burkhart, I think she was the relative of Ernest Burkhart. She pointed out, and a number of other people pointed out that you have to understand, a lot of the white guys there, a lot of the European Americans, particularly Bill Hale, they were good friends. One guy pointed out, he said Henry Roan was his best friend, and yet he killed him. People just didn’t believe at the time that Bill would be capable of such things. So, what is that about us as human beings that allows for us to be so compartmentalized in a way? After they saw ‘Silence,’ they sort of felt a little more comfortable with me doing this. Margie Burkhart said, one has to remember that Ernest, her ancestor loved Mollie and Mollie loved Ernest. It’s a love story. Ultimately what happened is that the script shifted that way, and that’s when Leo decided to play Ernest instead of Tom White. By that point, we started reworking the script and it became really, instead of from the outside in coming in and finding out who’d done it, when in reality it’s who didn’t do it. It’s a story of complicity. It’s a story of sin by omission, and silent complicity certain cases. That’s what afforded us the opportunity to open the picture up and start from the inside out.
Shooting in Oklahoma
(L to R) Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
Scorsese was determined to shoot the film in Oklahoma, where the story is based. He talked about the first time he visited Oklahoma and how he began to visualize shooting the movie there.
MS: Well, I think the first time was in 2019. It was a little confusing because of shooting ‘Irishman,’ doing the CGI, which was a longer post-production, four or five months, and then COVID hitting, but I know we were there before COVID. We at least had two trips there before COVID. For me, I am a New Yorker. I grew up in the lower East side of New York. I’m very urban. I don’t understand weather that much or where the sun is when you’re on the set. I was very surprised to learn that it’s set in the West. That’s because I was driving down Sunset Boulevard one time about 30 years ago, and I saw the sun setting and I said, it’s great. It’s “Sun-set Boulevard.” The sun sets in the West, I go, “oh, now I get it.” Anyway, when I got there, all I can tell you is those prairies are quite something and they open your mind and your heart. They are just beautiful. Especially driving on these roads, straight roads were prairie and on both sides, wild horses, bison and cows, but the wild horses just out to pasture for the rest of their lives and it was like idyllic. So I said, “Where do I put the camera at this point? How much of the sky? How much of the prairie?” Should it be 1.85 or should it be 235? We got to go 235. You’re going to want to see more of this land. Then I began to realize that the land itself could be sinister. In other words, you’re in a place like this and you don’t see people for miles. You could do anything. Particularly, it turns out a hundred years ago, for me, 1920 is like fifty years ago because I was born in 1942, so the 1920s are to me the way the 1990’s are now to younger people. So when they told me, “Marty, this is a hundred years ago,” I keep thinking, “why are we making a period piece? It’s like normal.” I mean, yes, they were old cars. So I said, “It’s not really a Western, it’s normal.” But when I saw that and I realized this is a place where you don’t need the law. I mean, you have the law, but the law isn’t working that way. You can make the law work for you if you’re smart enough, as we know now, many people do. What I mean by that is that it’s still a wide open territory. You have law, but it’s a wide open territory. So the place, as beautiful as it is, can shift to being very sinister. What I wanted to capture ultimately was the very nature of the virus or the cancer that creates this sense of an easygoing genocide. That’s why we went with the story with Mollie and Ernest because that’s the basis of the love. The love is the basis of trust. So when there’s betrayal that way, that deep, and we know that for a fact that it was that way. Here’s our story.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ director Martin Scorsese.
Scorsese also talked about balancing historical accuracy with what he calls the “emotional resonance” of the movie.
MS: This was a constant, historically accurate, and I should say the word “truthful.” You can have a ritual and you shoot a ritual is the way it should be, but it may have been slightly different at the time. We had a lot of support from the Osage authority, the experts who were giving us the indication of how to go about these things, Johnny Williams, and a number of other people. So with them, we tested the accuracy of the rituals, the weddings, the funerals, everything that happened at the funerals, all of this sort of thing. In some cases there was wiggle room because quite honestly, I think the last two generations of Osage forgot about or was taken out of their experience because they had to become white European, they had to become Christians, Catholics, or whatever. So they forgot about all that. In fact, there’s a new resurgence of the learning of the language. We had language teachers there, and Lily Gladstone learned the language and so did Leo, and so did De Niro who really fell in love with it and wanted to do more scenes in Osage. But I suggested that maybe it’s too much for him, but he just liked the sound of it. They were all learning again to put their culture back together through this movie and we were going with them. So what actually happened was, we would ask, does this person put the blanket on this way, is that right? Well, one person would say yes, I would say maybe no. Another one would say, you have a little room here to play with it and have some creative license. So that’s the way we did it throughout every scene that way. That was done a lot in pre-production and during the shoot. So we had that as a basis. There are ways that were never insistent, but there were ways they got to me, certain information where it was Marianne Bower, for example, one of our producers and she’s like my archivist, and she was able to help keep it all together between myself and the Osage.
Casting Lily Gladstone
(L to R) Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
The director discussed casting actress Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart and why her casting was pivotal to the film’s success.
MS: Well, I believe Ellen Lewis showed her to me in ‘Certain Women,’ Kelly Reinhardt’s film. I thought she was terrific and then COVID hit and we weren’t able to meet. So after the pandemic was calming down, we met on Zoom. I was very impressed by her presence, the intelligence and the emotion that’s there in her face, but you see it. You feel it, but it’s all working behind the eyes. You could see it happening. Also, her activism, which wasn’t overtaking the art, in other words, the art was in the activism in a sense. So the art takes over and in a way which we think then would be more resonant later on after you see the movie, you may be thinking about it more rather than a person preaching at you. I think the first big scene we did was one of my favorite scenes where she has dinner with Earnest alone and she’s questioning him, a little bit of an interrogation. “What are you doing here? Are you afraid of him? What’s your religion?” All this sort of thing. Then you begin to see the connection between the two. When she says, “Ha, coyote wants money.” And surprisingly he said, “That’s right, I love money.” So she knows, this is the other thing, she knows what she’s getting into. Even her sisters later, which is also a scene that we put in with the Osage and the Native American actors. They said, “What if we’re talking about the guys while they’re playing that game and we’re talking about my husband and talking about that guy with the blue eyes likes you and, you know, I don’t think he just wants money. It doesn’t matter. He’s nice. He wants to settle down.” Why don’t we just show that that’s how it could happen? So that’s the way the script was ultimately created by these moments. So with Lily, there was that scene, and of course the scene where he’s driving her in the taxi and it’s only one shot. He says something about, “I want to see who’s going to be in this horse race.” And she says something in Osage and He goes, “What’d you say?” And she says it in Osage again. And he says, “Well, I don’t know what that was, but it must’ve been Indian for handsome Devil.” That’s an improv, and you see her laugh for real. So that moment you have the actual relationship between the two actors. These were the two moments. We felt very comfortable with her. Also we had a feeling that we needed her. We needed her to help us tell the story of the women there. We would always check with her and work with her on the script. There were scenes that were added and rewritten constantly.
Reuniting with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro
(L to R) Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
Martin Scorsese has made ten movies with Robert De Niro, and five with Leonardo DiCaprio, but ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ marks the first Scorsese movie to feature both actors. The director discussed his working relationship with both De Niro and DiCaprio.
MS: Well, in the case of Robert De Niro, we were teenagers together, and he’s the only one who really knows where I come from, people I knew and that sort of thing. Some of them are still alive. He knows them. I know his friends, his old friends, and we had a real testing ground in the 70’s where we tried everything and we found that we trusted each other. It was all about trust and love. That’s what it is. That’s a big deal because very often if an actor has a lot of power, and he had a lot of power at that time, an actor could take over your picture, the studio gets angry with you, and the actor comes in and takes it over. With him I never felt that. I never felt that. There was a freedom. There was experimenting and also, he’s not afraid of anything. He wasn’t afraid to do something. He just did it. Years later he told me he worked with this kid, Leo DiCaprio, a little boy in ‘This Boy’s Life.’ He said, “You should work with this kid sometime,” but it was just casual. With him, something like that, a recommendation at that time, I think in the early 90’s, is not casual. He says it casually, but he rarely said that. He rarely gave recommendations. So years go by and I’m presented with Leo with ‘Gangs of New York,’ and we worked together in ‘Gangs.’ He made ‘Gangs’ possible actually. He loved the pictures I’d made and he wanted to explore the same territory. So we developed more of a relationship when we did ‘The Aviator.’ Towards the end of it, there was something happening in maturity with him, not quite sure, but we really clicked in certain scenes and that led to ‘The Departed,’ and then we became much closer. That was a project where Bill Monaghan, me, and other people, we were writing all the time and recreating that character that he played of Billy. During that time, he really found out that even though it’s a thirty years difference, he has similar sensibilities. He’ll come to me and he’ll say, listen to this record. It’s Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald. I grew up with it. He’s not bringing me anything new, but he likes it. That’s interesting. He’ll call me and says, “I had a cold and I was looking at Criterion Films and I wanted to catch up on some of these classics, and I saw this incredible movie. It’s a Japanese picture. It’s called ‘Tokyo Story.’ Did you ever see it?” This was last year, I said, “yeah.” I mean, it took me a few years to catch up. I couldn’t even understand Ozu‘s style, seeing it for the first time in the early 70’s because we used Orson Welles’ cameras, and this guy got it from watching it on a big screen TV. That’s very interesting to me to be open that way to older parts of our culture, newer parts of our culture, of course, and the curiosity that he has about other people and other cultures. There’s a trust. Even if we can’t get it right away, we know we’ll come up with something. Maybe other people have relationships where they come up with it faster. Well, we don’t. We just work it through. For example, the scene between Leo and Bob in the jail at the end. That scene ultimately was finally written, I think a few days before we shot it, working with the two of them and working with Marianne and everybody because we had said so much, and it could have gone so many different ways, but what does the picture really need? How much more is there for them to say to each other after all that’s happened? So we went that way. It’s trust. Particularly doing ‘The Wolf for Wall Street,’ by the way he came up with wonderful stuff that was outrageous. So I pushed him, he pushed me, then I pushed him more than he pushed me, and suddenly everything was wild. It’s really quite something. He had a good energy too on the set. That was also important. Very important, because in the mornings, I’m not really good and I’d get on set and then I’d see him or Jonah Hill or Margot Robbie, or him and Lily, and suddenly they’re all like, “Hey.” I said, “Okay, let’s work.”
The importance of Music in his Movies
(L to R) Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson at a screening of ‘The Last Waltz’ at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.
Finally, Scorsese discussed the importance of music in his movies, and how it influences the way he moves his camera. He also spoke about his longtime collaborator, the late musician Robbie Robertson, and his musical contributions to ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’
MS: The way I like to make pictures, for the most part I’ve learned, not intentionally, but I feel it is like the pacing of music. The boxing scenes in ‘Raging Bull’ are like the ballet scene in ‘The Red Shoes’ where everything is seen and felt from inside the ring, inside the fighter’s head. The way everything is felt and seen inside the dancer’s head of Moira Shearer in ‘Red Shoes.’ The covering of the band singing ‘The Weight’ in ‘The Last Waltz,’ doing it in a studio was very much according to the music, to the different bars of music and how a camera would move, et cetera. Sometimes I played the music back on the set in the case of ‘Goodfellas’, a number of times. The end of ‘Layla,’ for example, was played back as we were doing the camera moves. For me, ultimately a movie is more like, I’m trying to get to a movie being a piece of music. I think that’s why I do these music documentaries at the same time, I’m trying to get to the pacing and rhythm of something that can be played. For example, you play a symphony and you live with it. “I’ve heard the Beethoven Symphony so many times, I don’t want to hear it again.” No, you play it. “Well, I like the third movement. I want to hear the second movement again.” No, I mean, you live with it. Or Baroque music, anything by Bach or Philip Glass let’s say. In a case like this, very often if a film is playing on TCM, I take the sound off and I just watch. It’s living with me. I live with it. If it’s a Hitchcock or it’s a Ford or a newer one, whatever, I’m looking, and I can tell there’s a musical rhythm to the pacing of the camera and the edit. What I mean by the camera, it’s the size of the people in the frame, the editing and camera movement. I could feel it. So that’s how I exist in a sense. So for me, it’s really about getting the pace of music. That’s done very carefully on set, but also even more carefully in the editing. That’s why this picture is more like somebody pointed out recently, a Bolero, where it starts slower and moves slowly and encircles, and then suddenly gets more intense, and suddenly goes more and more until it explodes that way. So I felt it. I couldn’t verbalize the way I am now, but I felt it in the shoot and in the edit. A lot of the music that kept pushing me was what Robbie Robertson had put together, particularly that base note that he was playing. When Ernest drops her off for the first time at Mollie’s house, she looks at him, she turns, and all of a sudden you hear, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I said, “I wanted something dangerous and fleshy and sexy, but dangerous.” That beat took us all the way through. Then he sent me some hymn and I picked up music from Harry Smith’s Anthology of Folk Music, all this sort of thing. One particular piece called the ‘Indian War Whoop’ by Hoyt Ming and his Pep Steppers was very important. ‘Bulldoze Blues’ by Henry Thomas, which became ‘Going up the Country’ by Canned Heat. All of this, and ‘See See Rider Blues’ by Ma Rainey, and of course Emmett Miller singing ‘Lovesick Blues,’ which became the great ‘Lovesick Blues’ by Hank Williams later on, but this was the first. So it’s all that’s in there, but the drive of the movie is what Robbie put down, and we pulled it through that way.
(L to R) Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
Producer Neal Moritz has been looking to do something with 1993 action thriller ‘Cliffhanger’ for years now. He announced way back in 2009 that he was looking to reboot the concept (enthused by the success of J.J. Abrams’ first ‘Star Trek’ movie.
It has gone through different variations since then including the original plan to swap Sylvester Stallone’s sole hero for several younger climbers tackling peaks around the world, and a mysterious development from writer Joe Gazzam. Nothing, however, has come to fruition.
Now, though, it looks like it could finally be on, as Sylvester Stallone is back to star, with ‘Hunters’ Mark Bianculli cracking the script and ‘Angel has Fallen’s Ric Roman Waugh in the director’s chair (or climbing harness?)
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What was the story of the original ‘Cliffhanger’?
Renny Harlin’s original movie proved that the ‘Die Hard’ formula needn’t necessarily be restricted to claustrophobic indoor settings, plonking mountain-rescue boy Stallone on the side of a snowy peak. Sly’s Gabe Walker was reluctantly trying to foil John Lithgow’s plan to recover $100m stolen from the US treasury and deposited in the Rockies after a mid-air transfer went somewhat awry. There were deaths by gun, gravity, drowning and stalactite. And it wasn’t all snow: there were caves too.
(L to R) Janine Turner and Sylvester Stallone in ‘Cliffhanger.’
No one is saying what the actual plot of the new movie will be, save for Sly’s return. You just know, though, that the stakes (and probably the mountains) will be higher, and, we’d guess, there will be more on Walker’s team.
But can it live up to the original’s iconic scene of Gabe letting someone slip through his fingers. Climbing’s a dangerous sport, so you’ve got to figure there’ll be a body count.
Waugh said this about working on the new movie:
“Growing up with the biggest action films of the 80s and 90s, working on many of them myself, ‘Cliffhanger’ was by far one of my favorite spectacles. To be at the helm of the next chapter, scaling the Italian Alps with the legend himself, Sylvester Stallone, is a dream come true. It’s going to be a great challenge and blast taking this franchise to new heights, a responsibility I don’t take lightly.”
Moritz was also enthusiastic:
“I’ll never forget the thrill I felt watching Sylvester Stallone in ‘Cliffhanger’. I am incredibly excited to be working with him and Ric Waugh to continue the story of Gabe Walker and introduce this iconic story to a new generation of filmgoers around the world.”
Sly will produce this one and casting is now under way to find the actors to fill the roles around the leading man.
(L to R) Janine Turner and Sylvester Stallone in ‘Cliffhanger.’
Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie star in Bombshell.
In 2016, longtime Fox News chief Roger Ailes resigned over allegations of sexual harassment from multiple women, including network hosts Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly. And since scandals often serve as fodder for movies, it should come as no surprise that we’re getting a feature film based on those allegations and what happened behind the scenes at Fox News.
Lionsgate just dropped a new trailer for ‘Bombshell,’ which opens on December 20, and stars Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, and John Lithgow as Roger Ailes. Margot Robbie stars as the fictional character Kayla Pospisil, and the film is directed by Jay Roach. Theron is already getting Oscar buzz (yes, this early), and the December release by Lionsgate is clearly poised to make the movie top of mind during the nomination and voting windows.
“It’s hot in here,”Nicole Kidman’s Gretchen Carlson observes during an extremely uncomfortable elevator ride with Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) and news producer Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie).
The first teaser for “Bombshell,” the movie about the downfall of Fox News mogul Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), is here to turn up the heat.
The story follows the women who took on the Fox News mogul and the network’s toxic male culture. Carlson sued Ailes for sexual harassment in 2016 and Kelly came forward with her allegations. Ailes ultimately stepped down as CEO.
“What started with a whisper, will end with a bombshell,” reads flash cards that pop up during the teaser.
Jay Roach directs, with Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney, Kate McKinnon, Mark Duplass also starring.
TVLine reports that Lithgow will appear across from titular star Matthew Rhys, and will be playing Elias Birchard “E.B.” Jonathan. The site describes the character as “a personal attorney (and semi-regular employer of Mason) who is at a low point in his career. A mentor and father figure to Mason, E.B. is handed the kind of case he hasn’t seen in years: a high-profile parallel investigation to the Los Angeles Police Department involving a child kidnapping.”
Both Jonathan and Mason are going through hard times, as the series picks up with Mason — who’s depicted as a defense attorney in the Erle Stanley Gardner novels on which the adaptation is based — during a period where he’s working as a low-rent private investigator, trying to get his life back on track after a stint in the war and a failed marriage. Sounds like some juicy material for Lithgow and Rhys to work with — and definitely something we can’t wait to see the Emmy winners (for “The Crown” and “The Americans,” respectively) tackle.
Speaking of Emmy winners, “Orphan Black” alum Tatiana Maslany is also in the ensemble, playing the preacher Sister Alice. Based on these few castings alone, we’re already on board.
As Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) observes, “sometimes dead is better,” but in “Pet Sematary,” Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer’s adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel, better isn’t as good as the evil that ensues when a desperate father learns that there’s land on his newly acquired property that can mysteriously bring back living creatures from the grave. Both building upon and paying tribute to both that novel and the 1989 Mary Lambert film adapted from it, Kolsch and Widmeyer have created an all-new thriller that revitalizes the source material’s themes of grief and horror for all new audiences.
Paramount Pictures premiered the film Thursday night in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Theatre, where the directors and their collaborators, including writer Jeff Buhler, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and stars Jason Clarke and Amy Seimetz, were in attendance. Following a rousing screening of “Pet Sematary” that left audiences shivering and unsettled in their seats, the cast and crew shared some details about the making of the film that showcased their love for King’s original novel, their own creative instincts, and more than a few little pieces of production ephemera that challenged but ultimately helped elevate what might be dismissed as “yet another remake” to something truly special and emotionally powerful.
Paramount Pictures
Buhler, Kolsch and Widmeyer are lifelong Stephen King fans who actively wrestled with the challenge of making his iconic material their own. “It’s a balancing act,” said Widmeyer. “There’s been a movie already, so you have to, on the one hand, honor the essence of the novel and people who have read the book have to see the movie and say ‘that’s Pet Sematary.’ But Ellie (Jete Lawrence) is the one who’s asking those questions about death, so if we were going to change something, it made sense to have her then be the one to come back because she has the presence of mind to be aware that she’s dead, and then ask those questions again when she comes back. So you have that sort of dark, full circle theme. So you have to honor the fans and honor Steven King and they have to feel like they’re getting the essence of the source material, but then you have to do something for today’s sensibility and breathe new life into it.”
Producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura had been trying to develop a remake for almost nine years, and thrilled at the chance to make a version that he thought was truly dark and transgressive. “It’s sort of a testament to the power the book and just the ideas of it that kept us going for roughly nine years since we started,” Di Bonaventura said. “But not only did [Paramount] want to make it, but they had the guts to make a pretty dark version of it. In a time period where a lot of movies are really vanilla, this is anything but, and I give them a lot of credit for backing all of us here who participated in this making this crazy movie. I think it’s one of those interesting things where it doesn’t matter what generation you are, it’s going to apply to you. It’ll keep applying. We’ll probably make another movie 25 or 30 years from now.”
Clarke and Seimetz, seasoned professionals who have worked with many of the best actors in the business, were constantly impressed by young Jete Lawrence, who played not one but two versions of their young daughter Ellie. “She’s more professional than we are,” Seimetz said. “I mean, she’s a little scary actually, to watch her sort of click in from being a little girl to being evil Ellie, just because she does it so naturally. You didn’t have to sit and watch her slowly kill you, but she’s got that the sinister thing down. She’s gonna do really well in middle school.”
Clarke especially thought the choice to change the child’s gender from a boy to a girl gave the choices all the characters made additional weight, and indicated that Lawrence was not just there to deliver line readings but be a true collaborator. “I thought it was one of the best choices in the movie, for starters,” he said. “You get so much more mileage out of it being a young girl rather than a boy with a toy at some point. But the biggest thing was when I understood that she didn’t just want to get it right, she wanted to be an actor. Often with kids, they just want to get it right and then move on. But Jete really wanted to enjoy the performance and go further in the performance, and I think you can see it on screen, particularly in a number of scenes where she wanted to take it as far as she could go with it. And that’s when I really connected with her – I do have a good relationship with and she’s wonderful.”
Paramount Pictures
As good as Lawrence was in the role, however, no one, not even the directors or even the young actress’ parents, wanted to take credit for the transformation she undergoes. “Somebody on set came up to me and said, I was asking her parents, what did you do to prep her for this role? and the parents went, we didn’t really do anything. The directors must be telling her that,” Kolsch remembered from set. “I sat there looking at this person going, Oh really? Because I thought her parents were prepping her. Because we’re not really telling her anything. So I don’t know where it was coming from. But it was funny when we would do certain scenes she’d say, hey guys, can I have a minute? And she’d go off in a corner and she’d stand there and look down and [grit her teeth] and then go, ‘I’m ready!’”
That said, Di Bonaventura admitted they had some minor problems with the young twins that played Ellie’s younger brother. Seimetz defended them, saying that watching a fake version of themselves get dropped out of a window would traumatize anyone. “We had a dummy and the twins would come out and watch this dummy that’s dressed exactly like them drop out of the window,” Seimetz recalled. “And then they would be like, ‘okay, now it’s your turn!’ and all they had to do was be in Jason’s arms, but they were watching the dummy and it was kicking, and I was dropping it out of the window over and over, and then when [the directors] were like, ‘okay, time for the boys,’ they looked down at their costume and were like, ‘no no no!’”
After the cat in Lambert’s 1989 film became an icon, Kolsch and Widmeyer struggled first to find the right kind of cat to stand out in their film, and then to actually locate ones that could performa the tasks needed for its role in the film. “The cat in Mary Lambert’s movie is a British short hair and it’s a damn good looking cat,” said Widmyer. “Kevin and I were like, we shouldn’t try to compete with that cat. That cat is amazing and we have to do our own thing. And in the book, it’s a black and white tomcat, a very basic cat. So based on the art on the hardcover, we decided on a Maine coon, and that means four exotic colors and long hair – little did we know how hard it was going to be to find eight cats that all looked exactly like that. So it was really about finding the trainers, and then tasking the trainers with not finding a lot of cats that could do that. And to their credit, they did. Every cat had a different specialty – a cat that could hiss, a cat that could jump, a cat that could stare.”
Paramount Pictures
Although the filmmakers’ internal collaboration produced a remarkably effective film, Buhler credits King’s techniques as a writer for the fluidity of combining new and established ideas. “For me, the process with this film was always to identify the monster as grief and loss and there what’s cool about what Stephen King does, which not a lot of other authors and filmmakers can get away with is that he puts many different mythologies together. There’s dead people. There’s ghosts, there’s Indian mythology, there’s all kinds of things. And for some reason when you read his novels, all that all seems natural, but it can be very dangerous in a screenplay to start packing a film with so much different mythology that, and so that idea that the monster, that the force driving the film was the grief and loss that this family was experiencing allowed me to have a rudder through all of that crazy Stephen King world. So I think in retaining the spirit of the novel, it really works, but then all the changes also worked because that environment is true to the book.”
At the same time, even the filmmakers don’t fully agree on what the movie is about, or what it’s exploring – and that’s a good thing. “I think for every one of us it’s about different things,” said Di Bonaventura. “Yeah, it’s about grief. But that’s not really for me. For me it’s about our relationship with death. I think as a society we really brush it under the rug and we’ve increasingly tried to distance ourselves from it. And so this forces you to look at it in the most uncomfortable ways, you know? And having read the book when I was younger and then having read the book again after being a father, you get a whole other layer going on here. So those are the two things that drove me is that, how far would you go to see your kid again? Really far, apparently. Jason made a really bad decision, but you know, I understood it.”
Regardless, Clarke insists that no matter what theme or idea emerges as you watch it, he’s really enjoyed seeing the finished film and found it to be a lot of fun. “It brings a smile to my face down to hear everybody releasing emotion, laughter and shock. For me, it was a very dark, disturbing, upsetting piece, especially if you have children. And then to shoot it was very hard – we spent a good month and a half of the shoot in the full horror. So to actually watch it now, it’s a lot. It’s enjoyable.”
The star-studded, still-untitled movie chronicling the downfall of Fox News boss Roger Ailes has a release date.
Lionsgate has slated the Jay Roach-directed film for December 20.
The movie is packed with A-list talent: Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly; Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson; Margot Robbie as news producer Kayla Pospisil; and John Lithgow as Ailes himself.
Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney, Kate McKinnon, Mark Duplass also star.
The story follows the women who took on the Fox News mogul and the network’s toxic male culture. Carlson sued Ailes for sexual harassment in 2016 and Kelly came forward with her allegations. Ailes ultimately stepped down as CEO.
The Ailes movie joins a crowded slate around Christmas, which includes “Star Wars: Episode IX” and the adaptation of Broadway’s “Cats.”
Don’t mess with the dead or, as the first trailer for “Pet Sematary” proves, you will absolutely regret it.
Stephen King’s classic novel gets a new adaptation, having previously made it to the big screen in 1989. The story is the same: A doctor (Jason Clarke) and his family move to a house in rural Maine, where they discover a burial ground nearby in the woods.
When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his unusual neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences.
The movie, from directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, seems to treat King’s novel mostly faithfully, except for one big change that is revealed in the trailer. It may prove controversial for King fans, but everything else about the chilling trailer points to an “It”-sized hit.
Here’s Jud’s speech in the original (spoiler warning):
Here’s the film synopsis:
“Based on the seminal horror novel by Stephen King, ‘Pet Sematary’ follows Dr. Louis Creed (Jason Clarke), who, after relocating with his wife Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and their two young children from Boston to rural Maine, discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden deep in the woods near the family’s new home. When tragedy strikes, Louis turns to his unusual neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), setting off a perilous chain reaction that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences.”
The fresh — or just lightly dead — horror film, directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, is currently scheduled to open in theaters on April 5.
