Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512164
K I L L E R S O F T H E F L O W E R M O O N | P E R S P E C T I V E 6 3 I met Martin Scorsese for the first time on a computer screen as COVID raged across the country. We were on a Zoom call talking about Killers of the Flower Moon. I liked Marty immediately. He was relaxed, friendly and passionate about making a Western in Oklahoma, a true story about an Osage woman, Mollie Kyle Burkhart (played by Lily Gladstone), her three sisters, and her mother, who were all targeted to be killed for their oil lease royalties—called 'head rights'—in 1920s Oklahoma. Marty's history in film, his enthusiasm, and the fact that it was a true story hooked me. As he talked, I realized that there was no film I wanted to work on more than the one he was describing. My mind whirled with possibilities. Pre-COVID, and before I came on the film, Marty had visited the town of Gray Horse on the Osage Reservation and talked with the Osage people about the project. Those early meetings created a seismic shift in Marty's approach to the story: from one about the Osage to one told through the Osage. As Marty continued to work on the script, I began immersing myself in research. Marianne Bowers, an executive producer on the film and Marty's archivist, had amassed an enormous amount of research in the years while Marty was developing the script, which she made available to all departments. I made a quick trip to Oklahoma with the producer Daniel Lupi and set decorator Adam Willis (both great partners) to get a lay of the land. Arriving in Gray Horse, as well as the nearby town of Fairfax, we did not find prairie towns full of mansions and extravagance but small decaying farm communities with many structures destroyed by tornadoes and water damage from missing roofs. It was difficult to imagine how this was once one of the richest communities in America. There was much to learn about the Osage and their assimilation into the white world. I was curious to know what Mollie's house looked like and how A. MOLLIE'S HOUSE AND GRAY HORSE RESERVATION. ILLUSTRATION BY LANDON LOTT. DRAWN TO SHOW MARTY HOW THE HOUSE WOULD SIT ON THE CREEK WITH THE RESERVATION OF GRAY HORSE AND THE CEMETERY IN THE DISTANCE. THE FIRE ON THE HORIZON REPRESENTED A LATER SCENE IN THE FILM THAT WAS TO TAKE PLACE ON HALE'S RANCH B. LAYOUT OF MOLLIE'S HOUSE IN GRAY HORSE. EARLY SKETCH OVER LOCATION PHOTO BY JACK FISK TO SHOW LOCATION OF THE STRUCTURES. B