Eric Roth

[Leo_The_Last]

Eric Roth mentions Killers of the Flower Moon:

He has been working on Scorsese’s film for “probably five years,” however.

“Martin is the most inventive man I’ve ever worked with — certainly, he encourages you to be the most imaginative and I have a good imagination… It’s set between 1920 and 1925, and I think it can be one of the last great Westerns. He wants to make one big Western — this will be the last of its kind, I promise you.”
www.thewrap.com/star-is-born...per-lady-gaga/

Sounds exciting!

[Zotyto]

Precisely what I was hoping for. Scorsese doing a John Ford western.

[Zotyto]

deadline.com/2019/02/a-star-is-born-eric-roth-bradley-cooper-oscars-interview-1202555552/

Screenwriter Eric Roth Discusses ‘Dune,’ ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon,’ Writing For Kurosawa & Bringing New Life To ‘A Star Is Born’

Then, Killers of the Flower Moon, I think, is one of the great stories that one could tell. I think any good writer would do this justice; it’s such a powerful piece, and it’ll be Marty Scorsese basically doing a Western.

[Zotyto]

From the November 2019 issue of Sight & Sound

Philip Horne: You’re about to make Killers of the Flower Moon, the story of the Bureau of Investigation handling of the 1920s murders of members of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma, who had become immensely rich through their oil rights. The narrative, in the book it’s based on anyway, is more linear than it is in The Irishman, isn’t it?

Martin Scorsese: Yes, but again, I don’t know if I’d do it that way. I’ve been working with Eric Roth on the script for a few years now, and we’re – now, actually, yesterday, in this room, and last night – we’re knocking away at this script, and restructuring it, rethinking it. Because it’s convenient to do a sort of detective story, but we all know what it is. So I want to explore something else, and that is the nature of a whole way of thinking as being complicit in genocide. It’s dehumanising people. I was out in Oklahoma about six weeks ago, and ultimately, as the Osage told me, it’s about greed. And therefore you could think that these people don’t deserve any of it because they’re not human anyway. Not really human. That opens up a whole interesting situation, let’s say, with William Hale [the jovial, sinister white local patriarch] and his nephew Ernest, and [his Osage niece-by-marriage] Mollie, beyond even the Bureau of Investigation and [its agent] Tom White, who’s a good man, comes in – he couldn’t pin it on anybody, he couldn’t get evidence – they were all doing it. Or they’re all, at least, complicit in sins of omission. They were quiet about it. And ultimately that’s the story, the whole idea of the status quo being guilty.

Philip Horne: De Niro is going to be in it?

Martin Scorsese: [Yes, as] Bill Hale. William Hale. Gotta get him in there. And Leo [DiCaprio], I think playing Ernest at this point, the husband. And we haven’t yet settled on Tom White, but… yeah, it’s shifting the story from – since we know what happens and we know certain characters... Then how do you tell the story from the inside rather than from the exterior in. It’s going to take a few more months to get that right. But I was in Oklahoma, met with the Osage, Chief Standing Bear and his family, and it’s quite remarkable. I was certainly – how shall I put it? – surprised by the landscape. This is very different. I’m more used to the South-west, California, New Mexico – I did a film there. The
landscape here is something that I hadn’t anticipated. The space of it. And the isolation is interesting. I mean, we’re just beginning, but I hope to get there, I hope to start shooting it by March or April. But it’s exciting, and we’re just grappling now, getting the script together. I have to go around, do some travelling, for The Irishman, but these days it’s best just to get to work.

Emma Tillinger Koskoff talks about KOTFM at the NYFF:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSEkVQfGBRs

(at 36:20)

David Hinojosa: So I have to ask you the... what's on the horizon? It sounds like you're barreling into another amazing thing.

Emma Tillinger Koskoff: Barreling right in. I'm in a soft... soft prep right now. Which means you're not technically greenlit. Which we're not. We're supposed to start shooting in March, so...

David Hinojosa: Where are you going to be shooting?

Emma Tillinger Koskoff: Oklahoma.

(at 37:54)

Question from the audience: You mentioned that you're still waiting for the official green light for Killers of the Flower Moon. In general, is that process more about changing the elements of the project to fit the needs of a potential financier, or is it about hanging onto those elements until you find the right person to finance it?

Emma Tillinger Koskoff: We have the studio who's gonna finance it, so we're gonna have to... It's always... It's always a budget thing. So, we're crunching and trying to fit into a very nice and generous box. We're fine-tuning the script, we just need to get there, and we will.

Osage Nation spreads word about open casting call for 'Killers of the Flower Moon'
www.tulsaworld.com/entertainment/movies/osage-nation-spreads-word-about-open-casting-call-for-killers/article_5c507ab3-ede0-56c8-82a0-eb623c87662a.html

[shynney]

So pleased to see this might be going ahead. Fascinating story!

[Zotyto]

www.barstoolsports.com/video-podcast/2519591/pmt-6-3-forrest-gump-writer-eric-roth-nfl-power-rankings-mt-rushmore-of-why-we-love-dogs

A podcast with Eric Roth. At 0:38:55 he starts talking about Killers of the Flower Moon. He says Scorsese wants to start filming this fall, if that's possible, even thinking about moving the production to Australia. Roth is not sure which part DiCaprio is going to play, but probably not Tom White.

[ScorseseFan]

It would sting for Oklahoma to lose what would likely be the biggest movie to be filmed in the State in years but seeing as the US government continues to handle containment of the Coronavirus terribly - and a certain upcoming rally in Tulsa is going to only exacerbate things in OK - I am not surprised nor would I be shocked if the movie moved out the country. Australia in total has fewer confirmed cases and deaths than the state of Oklahoma alone. Moving the core team & cast to Australia, isolating for two weeks, habitual Covid-19 testings and then using a professional local crew would certainly be a much safer and easier way to monitor the production than staying in the US. Spring in Australia starts in September so they'd have ideal weather conditions to start shooting in late 2020 rather than waiting another few months for March or April 2021.


I'm sure the production would have to work some crazy deal with Australia to shoot there, the country has apparently locked their borders to international travel, but that's a perk of a $200 million budget.

[Zotyto]

'Killers of the Flower Moon' Writer Says Arguments with Leonardo DiCaprio Forced Script Changes

www.indiewire.com/2020/11/killers-of-the-flower-moon-leonardo-dicaprio-fought-change-script-1234599036/

Scriptnotes Podcast 475 - The One with Eric Roth

Roth continued, "That's supposed to start filming in March once the Covid clears out, and it's Martin Scorsese. They'll be continuing rewrites with that. Leonardo [DiCaprio] wanted some things changed that we argued about. He won half of [the arguments]. I won half of them. So that's happening."

[ScorseseFan]

Eric Roth reveals some juicy details in a recent upcoming interview with Collider;

collider.com/killers-of-the-flower-moon-movie-update-role-changes-western-eric-roth-interview/

[arnzilla]

www.screendaily.com/features/mank-writer-producer-eric-roth-on-working-with-fincher-dune-scorseses-next-project/5158777.article

Meanwhile, Roth has Killers Of The Flower Moon, based on David Grann’s non-fiction book Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI, about to start shooting, with Scorsese directing Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons. It is a project that has taken five years and numerous drafts, the most recent being when DiCaprio decided he would rather play the villain than the lead. “Marty called me very late at night and said, ‘Are you laying down or sitting down? Leonardo has a big idea.’ I think Leonardo was right. I’m not sure he can play Gary Cooper, which is what the main character kind of is. It’s a spectacular book. I think it’s going to be the most profound movie about Native Americans that’s ever been made.”

[Zotyto]

www.indiewire.com/2022/02/eric-roth-interview-dune-1234700625/

Eric Roth talks about the movie

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is David Grann’s non-fiction investigation of a series of murders that plagued the Osage people during the 1920s after oil was discovered on their land. You’re dealing with history.

Well, I’ve done that before in “Munich” and when Michael Mann and I did “Ali;” I’ve done that kind of bio. But this was a unique story that I knew nothing about. It showed my ignorance. I thought, “It’s unbelievable, it could be a Western.” Marty’s never done a Western. It’s the first time you’ll see a street scene where there’s 90 percent Native American indigenous people, and 1 or 2 percent Caucasians.

He showed me early on a clunky, dated movie called “The FBI Story,” with Jimmy Stewart: three cases from the FBI files, and this was one of them. They had an oil well in the middle of the street. I felt it might have a feeling of this, and so I utilize a lot of Western tropes for it. Marty lets you go far afield. He doesn’t mind exploring whatever way creatively you want to do things and so I had a lot of E-ticket rides. I don’t know what are left.

Was this the longest script then?

Marty doesn’t mind things being long; he encourages that. But it’s more than him figuring it out; he’s telling you what he wants. And he steers you, says “I love this and this, but can we try this?” And I was happy. I came up with an incredible way to do the end credits, which you’ve never seen. He wrote me a text the other day: “I’m going to shoot our end credits in a couple days.” I was so happy that he’s doing that.

Did you visit the Oklahoma set?

I’ve got a lot of underlying conditions. With Covid I would have had to go into quarantine for 10 days. Marty needed to focus on what he was doing, it was a huge task. We talked all the time and still do. It was one of the my great experiences, so I hope the movie’s good.

When is “Killers of the Flower Moon” actually coming out?

When you’d assume: next November. I’ve heard he’s well on his way to getting the editing done.

[arnzilla]

www.scriptapart.com/episodes/episode-79-killers-of-the-flower-moon-eric-roth-intervierw