Leonardo DiCaprio, writer Eric Roth butted heads over 'The Killers of the Flower Moon' script

The film, based on David Grann's historical book of the same name, is set in 1920s Oklahoma and centres around the Osage Nation murders, in which members of the Native American tribe were murdered one by one after the group became rich off the oil found underneath their land. During the latest episode of “Script Notes” podcast, Roth, 75, confirmed that there were disagreements between him and DiCaprio about how the film's story would unfold.

"I spent four or five years on this book, 'Killers of the Flower Moon', which everybody should read. It’s a wonderful book. My screenplay I think was accurate to the book. "It’s the story of Osage Indians, 1921, the poorest people in America who discover oil in this terrible land in Oklahoma where they’ve been driven to. Then every killer in America comes to kill 184 of them for their money, but this really heroic guy comes in (to help)," Roth said. The writer is known for penning scripts of critically-acclaimed features like "Forrest Gump" , "The Insider" , "Munich", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "A Star Is Born" . Roth said DiCaprio wanted changes in the script which led to the "arguments" between the two. "That’s (the film was) supposed to start filming in March once the Covid clears out, and it's Martin Scorsese. They’ll be continuing rewrites with that. Leonardo wanted some things changed that we argued about. He won half of (the arguments). I won half of them. So that’s happening," he added.

According to IndieWire, DiCaprio was cast as a hero in the movie but he wanted changes regarding his character portrayal. The 46-year-old actor wanted to play the nephew of De Niro, who will feature as the villain in the film.

Apple will finance the movie after Paramount Pictures decided to sell it over burgeoning costs. The film is expected to start production next year.