TAXI DRIVER Writer says Leonardo DiCaprio should have played an FBI agent and not ‘an idiot’ in KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

Screenwriter Paolo Schrader, who wrote Martin Scorsese’S Taxi driver AND wild bullrecently spoke about the director’s recent film The Flower Moon Assassinsand he would have done things very differently if he had been the one writing the film.

In a recent interview with France’s Le Monde, Schrader called The Flower Moon Assassins a “good film” but one that could have been much better Leonardo Dicaprio he actually played the FBI agent investigating the Osage murders as he was originally supposed to. The writer didn’t seem to enjoy watching DiCaprio play “an idiot” for nearly four hours. He said:

“Marty compares me to a Flemish miniaturist. He would be more the type to paint Renaissance frescoes. Give it $200 million and it will inevitably make a good movie. That said, I would have preferred Leonardo DiCaprio to play the cop in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ rather than the idiot. Spending three and a half hours in the company of an idiot is a long time.”

While I enjoyed the film, I agree with Schrader. I didn’t like DiCaprio in that role and thought he played it too exaggerated. It was almost cartoonish in a way.

Schrader went on to reveal that he prefers it Christopher Nolan‘S Oppenheimer, calling it “the best and most important film of this century.” He added: If you see a film in cinemas this year it should be like this Oppenheimer. I’m no Nolan groupie, but this one blows the door off its hinges.

Scorsese had previously spoken about his original vision for the story, saying it would focus more on FBI character Tom White played by Jesse Plemon. But DiCaprio was originally supposed to play the role. He would lean on the whole FBI side of the story. But it was DiCaprio who requested the script change.

The director previously told the Irish Times: “I and [my co-screenwriter] Eric Roth talked about telling the story from the point of view of the FBI agents who came to investigate. After two years of working on the script, Leo came to me and asked, “Where is the heart of this story?” I had had meetings and dinners with the Osage and thought, “Well, that’s the story.” The real story, in our opinion, did not necessarily come from outside, from the Bureau, but rather from inside, from Oklahoma.”

Scorsese also said that while writing the original screenplay he realized that he was “making a movie about all white people… That means I was taking an outside-in approach, which worried me. He just didn’t seem to get to the heart of the matter. We were not steeped in Osage history. There was this very little scene between Mollie and Ernest that caused such an emotion in us while reading, and we started to delve into what that relationship was, why it was so twisted and bizarre and unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. “

The Flower Moon Assassins is now available to rent or purchase on VOD and digital platforms. It will stream exclusively on Apple TV+ in 2024.