When Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro aren’t busy trying to figure out ways to digitally de-age the latter in Netflix movies about professional hitmen, they do field offers from other studios. That seems to be the case now with Imperative Entertainment, the production house that recently snapped up the rights for David Grann’s non-fiction novel Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI. After spending a whopping $5 million dollars for the rights, Imperative immediately pivoted into convincing the two Hollywood stars   —  and their frequent collaborator Leonard DiCaprio  —  to accept the project on their behalf.

And so far, it sounds like it’s going pretty well. According to an exclusive report in Deadline (via Collider), the trio are apparently “seriously considering” adapting Imperative’s offer to adapt the novel. Should all three sign on for the project, this would be the first time they have worked together since their 2015 short film The Audition, a short that also doubled as an advertisement for a new group of Asian casinos. While that film only ran about 15 minutes, it did cost over $70 million to make, suggesting that whatever Imperative decides, it’ll need to pony up some serious cash to snag their interest. Even the trio’s commercials cost more than most feature films.

For those who haven’t had a chance to read Grann’s book, here’s the full plot synopsis courtesy of the Penguin Random House homepage:

In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly compelling, but also emotionally devastating.

Killers of the Flower Moon was released in bookstores on April 18, meaning now’s the time to jump on the book while waiting for Scorsese et al to make up their minds. Grann also wrote the book that James Gray’s The Lost City of Z is based on, giving the author as strong a track record as you’d want for cinematic success.

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