Paramount Pictures, coming off Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed but commercially underwhelming “Silence,” baulked at the quickly increasing cost of his next film “The Irishman”.
In early 2017 they let the property go and Netflix swooped in and picked up the feature – turning it into the costly but high profile awards contender it was upon premiering last year.
Scorsese’s gone back to Paramount for his new film, the Leonardo DiCaprio-led “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and this week Richard Rushfield’s Ankler newsletter (via Slashfilm) reports that rumors have cropped up suggesting what happened in 2017 is happening again.
Scorsese essentially had a blank check and full creative freedom with “Irishman,” and the rumors suggest both his nostalgia for Netflix’s freedom and the film’s current $225 million budget has gotten Paramount nervous and expressing concern ahead of the project kicking off shooting next month.
Based on “The Lost City of Z” author David Grann’s non-fiction book, the 1920s true story focuses on a string of murders of members of the Osage nation in Oklahoma after oil was discovered beneath their land. The series of slayings was one of the fledgeling FBI’s first major homicide investigations.
Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas will produce the film which also stars Robert De Niro.
