Actor Brendan Fraser has been having a bit of a carer resurgence taking roles in Steven Soderbergh’s No Sudden Move and Darren Aronofsky’s drama The Whale, but the actor has nabbed another high-profile project working with a legendary director.
Deadline reports that Brendan Fraser will play lawyer WS Hamilton in Martin Scorsese’s new thriller Killers of The Flower Moon, joining a cast that includes Jesse Plemons, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro.
Based on David Grann’s best-selling book, the Apple Original Film adaptation takes place in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts a string of brutal murders of Osage Nation Native Americans, which came to be known as the Reign of Terror. The Osage Nation, who were the richest people per capita in the world, were killed one by one after oil was discovered on their land. As the death toll rose, the newly-created FBI took up the case and unraveled a chilling conspiracy and one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.
DiCaprio will play Ernest Burkhart, the nephew if powerful rancher played by Robert De Niro and the husband of Lily Gladstone’s Mollie. Plemons took over DiCaprio’s former role of FBI Agent Tom White.
Filming had been taking place in Oklahoma.
Martin Scorsese has made a push to hire a large group of Native American actors, many unknown to Hollywood/audiences but the project has been controversial having a non-Native filmmaker making a film that chronicles the pain and brutal string of murders of a community he isn’t a member of.
Killers of The Flower Moon won’t be the first time the director has explored foreign cultures and historical events with previous pictures such as the Japan-set Silence and Tibet-set Kundun.
A release date has yet to be announced by Apple, but it’s assumed it could be ready for awards consideration in the fall. However, this will likely be depend on how much visual effects will be involved and how quickly they’ll be able to have a cut ready to go.
SOURCE: DEADLINE
THE RONIN 