The bidding war over one of the highest profile films in Hollywood is nearly over, Deadline reports. Apple will win the derby for the Martin Scorsese-directed film Killers of the Flower Moon, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in the lead roles.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is the third non-fiction book by American journalist David Grann. The book was released on April 18, 2017 by Doubleday.
The deals are being papered — Paramount still has to sign off — but I’m told when they are, it will be an Apple original film, and Paramount will distribute theatrically worldwide.
The deal, which calls for Apple to finance and become the creative studio, gives the movie a hybrid situation and the best of both worlds. The film will get a wide theatrical release through Paramount before it becomes the biggest film title so far on Apple’s streaming service. A big priority was for this to be a large scale Western and that was important to Scorsese, DiCaprio, De Niro and the film’s producers Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas at Imperative.
It’s the second huge movie deal for Apple, which Deadline recently revealed acquired Greyhound, the WWII film that stars Tom Hanks, who wrote the script. Clearly, Apple is making its move.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple is obviously playing for keeps.
