Killers of the Flower Moon: Martin Scorsese might have to bring new Leonardo DiCaprio film to Netflix as it's too expensive

Fi'm's ballooning budget has seen it become more than $50m more expensive than The Irishman

Martin Scorsese is experiencing a strange case of déjà vu – it’s looking like he might have to bring his new film to Netflix as Paramount is not happy with the size of its budget.

Much like he did with The Irishman, which was given a Netflix release as no studio would pay to distribute the costly film, Scorsese is said to be courting streaming service for his new film Killers of the Flower Moon.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the film – adapted from David Grann’s true-crime thriller – documents the string of murders which plagued the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma during the 1920s after oil was found on their land.

The case was deemed the FBI’s first homicide investigation.

Paramount pictures signed up tot he film after rights to Grann’s book – subtitled The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI – fetched a reported $5m in 2016. The script was written by Eric Roth, the Oscar-winner behind Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

However, with production set to begin later this year, the budget has said to have ballooned to over $200m – more than $50m what The Irishman is said to have cost.

This would make the film Scorsese’s most expensive by a long way, and Wall Street Journal reports that Paramount bosses are unsure whether they want to pay the entire sum.

The report adds that the studio is open to a deal permitting them to release the film in partnership with another. Scorsese is said to also be discussing deals with Universal and MGM.

In July 2019, it was reported that Robert De Niro had also signed on to star in the film.

Killers of the Flower Moon will mark Scorsese and DiCaprio’s sixth collaboration in 17 years following Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street.