By Filmmakers Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese have a long-standing relationship going back to their work together on “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull”, with Schrader writing and Scorsese directing those cinematic classics.
Schrader is also famously blunt and opinionated in his takes on films and recently spoke with France’s Le Monde (via The Playlist) about his viewing of Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”.
The “First Reformed” and “The Master Gardener” writer/director says Scorsese’s film is a “good movie” but thinks it would’ve been better had DiCaprio stuck to his original role of the FBI agent investigating the murders:
“Marty compares me to a Flemish miniaturist. He would be more the type who paints Renaissance frescoes. Give him $200 million, a good film will inevitably come out of it. That said, I would have preferred Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of the cop in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ rather than the role of the idiot. Spending three-and-a-half hours in the company of an idiot is a long time.”
Scorsese famously retooled the film which was originally planned to be something more akin to an investigative procedural told from the perspective of FBI agent Tom White.
When the retooling happened the whole film changed and the White role was reduced to a supporting one. DiCaprio switched parts to the now more prominent Ernest Burkhart character whilst Jesse Plemons took on the agent role.
In the same interview, Schrader also confirmed that Quentin Tarantino has been in contact with him regarding the “Pulp Fiction” director’s tenth and seemingly final directorial effort – “The Movie Critic”. The filmmaker says:
“Yes. Quentin will insert extracts from films from the 1970s. And he will also make his own versions of films from that era. He asked me for permission to shoot the ending of Rolling Thunder (1977), by John Flynn, as I had written it in the original screenplay – before it was completely rewritten and watered down.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” is now available to rent or purchase on VOD and digital platforms and will stream exclusively on Apple TV+ sometime in 2024.
Tarantino’s new film is expected to shoot next year for a 2025 release.
The post Schrader Talks “Flower Moon,” Tarantino’s Next appeared first on Dark Horizons.
