Jesse Plemons is reuniting with The Irishman director Martin Scorsese for his next picture, Killers Of The Flower Moon.
Plemons joins Academy Award-winner Leonardo DiCaprio and Academy Award-winner Robert De Niro in the big-budget thriller which Scorsese is directing for Apple Studios and Imperative Entertainment.
Plemons will play the role that was originally due to be taken on by DiCaprio before the actor requested rewrites and the chance to play a secondary lead.
This role s a real win for Plemons, who for the last few years has proven his talent with scene-stealing supporting roles in the likes of Breaking Bad, The Irishman, The Post, and the comedy Game Night.
Plemons will play Tom White, the lead FBI agent investigating the murders at the centre of Killers Of The Flower Moon which became known as the Reign of Terror.
Based on the critically acclaimed book Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann, the movie will tell the story of a series of murders of wealthy Osage people that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma in the early 1920s after big oil deposits were discovered beneath their land. This sparks a major F.B.I. investigation involving J. Edgar Hoover.
DiCaprio will now play nephew to De Niro, with the Raging Bull star playing William Hale, “King of the Osage Hills,” the man responsible for most of the murders. Lily Gladstone (Billions) fills out the cast as Ernest Burkhart, an Osage married to DiCaprio’s character.
Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Good Shepherd), has written the script with production set to take place on location in Oklahoma.
Scorsese has previously provided some insight into what audiences can expect from the project, with the director calling Killers Of The Flower Moon a “western” saying –
“We think it’s a western. It happened in 1921-1922 in Oklahoma. They are certainly cowboys, but they have cars and also horses.”
Along with the lead in Killers Of The Flower Moon, Plemons is also reportedly being sought after to take the main role in director Jordan Peele’s next feature, with the actor having to turn down the chance to join Peele’s latest thriller due to scheduling conflicts.
Killers Of The Flower Moon does not yet have a release date.
