Martin Scorsese’s next movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, has been filming since April, but casting news has continued to trickle in over the following months. Just last week, Brendan Fraser, who recently appeared in No Sudden Move and will soon be back as Cliff Steele/Robotman for Doom Patrol Season 3, was announced as part of the on-camera lineup. Now it’s been revealed that Fraser and the rest of the all-star cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, will be joined by John Lithgow.
Following his Emmy-nominated performance as E.B. Jonathan in HBO’s Perry Mason, and ahead of his reprisal of Arthur Mitchell in the Dexter: New Blood limited series, it’s been announced that John Lithgow has signed onto Killers of the Flower Moon. According to Deadline, Lithgow will play Prosecutor Leaward in Martin Scorsese’s follow-up to 2019’s The Irishman. Fraser will be playing fellow lawyer W.S. Hamilton, but it’s unclear if his character is working with Leaward as part of the prosecution team or if he’ll be part of the defense instead.
In any case, this marks John Lithgow’s first time starring in a Martin Scorsese movie, so it’s good these two icons of Hollywood finally crossed paths for a project. This will also be Lithgow’s first film appearance since 2019, although that was a big year for him, as he starred in four movies. Late Night kicked off the bunch, followed by The Tomorrow Man, his turn as Jud Crandall in the Pet Sematary remake and Bombshell, where he played late Fox News CEO Roger Ailes.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have been looking to make a Killers of the Flower Moon movie since 2017, one year after Imperative Entertainment won the bidding war for the film rights to David Grann’s same-named nonfiction book. However, Scorsese’s work on Netflix’s The Irishman necessitated that Killers of the Flower Moon be temporarily tabled. But by June 2019, that proverbial ball started to get rolling again, and a little under two years later, principal photography finally kicked off.
Along with Leonardo DiCaprio (who’s also producing), John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser, Killers of the Flower Moon’s cast includes Robert De Niro, (who suffered a leg injury shortly after shooting his scenes), Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, Sturgill Simpson, Louis Cancelmi, William Belleu, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy and Scott Shepherd. The 1920s-set movie follows follows the FBI investigation into the murders of members of the Osage Nation, which came to be known as the Reign of Terror.
As a co-production between Paramount Pictures and Apple TV+, Killers of the Flower Moon will play in theaters worldwide, and then it will subsequently be made available on the latter streaming service. A release date hasn’t been set yet, but you can learn what movies are on the calendar with our 2021 release schedule and 2022 release schedule.
