Martin Scorsese debuts 'Killers of the Flower Moon' trailer, chats with Leonardo DiCaprio

LAS VEGAS – CinemaCon feted Martin Scorsese with their inaugural "Legend of Cinema" Award and got two icons for the price of one.

The Oscar-winning director debuted the trailer for his upcoming historical drama "Killers of the Flower Moon" during a Thursday presentation at the convention for theater owners. At a luncheon in his honor later, Scorsese was joined in conversation by surprise guest Leonardo DiCaprio.

They discussed everything from influences on his work to how Scorsese first fell in love with movies as a sickly kid with whooping cough, and the two frequent collaborators also talked about the significance of their new movie "Killers" (in theaters Oct. 6 before streaming on Apple TV+).

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The first footage dug into the mystery and tragedy of the real-life story set in the 1920s. DiCaprio stars as Ernest Burkhart, an Oklahoma man who loves and marries Mollie (Lily Gladstone), a member of the Osage Nation. The tribe became wealthy when the land they were given turned out to be rich with oil, which then led to a string of murders of Osage people. Robert De Niro stars as a local power player and Jesse Plemons plays a former Texas Ranger sent to investigate the killings.

The movie is based on David Grann's 2017 book, and DiCaprio read from a note Grann sent along about the film: "It is an American crime story that is less about who did it than who didn't do it. It's about widespread complicity and conspiracy, and ultimately it's about reckoning with our past that is long overdue."

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It was important to Scorsese that the movie be filmed on the land where the events took place and also not center it on the "good guys" – the FBI and law enforcement that comes in – but instead Mollie and Ernest. "That's where the heart of the picture is," Scorsese said.

"There's love and there's murder. It's about winning. It's all about greed," he added. "And the only way to do it was to go there and stay there and be with the Osage."

Scorsese remarked that it was "tough" and "not an easy film to make.”

"I’m a New Yorker and there are prairies out there. Wild horses, coyotes, whatever,” he said. “We immersed ourselves in it and tried to do right by them as much as possible."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese talk 'Killers of the Flower Moon'