The second trailer for Martin Scorsese's epic Western "The Killers of the Flower Moon" was released Wednesday a little over a month after the film debuted to glowing reviews at Cannes Film Festival.
Stretching to a runtime exceeding three hours and costing Apple a reported $200 million to make, the film − Scorsese's first narrative feature since 2019's "The Irishman" − may be among the lauded director's most ambitious. And if the buzz at Cannes is any indication, it's also among the year's most highly-anticipated films.
After releasing a teaser trailer in May, Apple has released the first full-length trailer for "Killers of the Flower Moon," a historical crime drama starring frequent Scorsese collaborators Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The trailer unveils more of the violent tale that Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth spin about murders and mayhem in Oklahoma's Osage Nation during the 1920s after oil was discovered on tribal land.
'Top tier Martin Scorsese':'Killers of the Flower Moon' gets rapturous reception at Cannes
Here's what to know about "Killers of the Flower Moon."
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'Killers of the Flower Moon' trailer
What is 'Killers of the Flower Moon' about?
The film is set in the 1920s in northeastern Oklahoma when the discovery of oil in the area brings a fortune to Osage Nation. But things take a deadly turn when the allure of wealth draws murderous outsiders to the tribal lands and several Native Americans are killed under mysterious circ*mstances.
A Texas Ranger, along with the Bureau of Investigation − a precursor to the FBI − are called out to investigate the deaths, led by a young J. Edgar Hoover.
Glowing review at Cannes Film Festival
The film premiered on May 20 at Cannes Film Festival, where it drew a lengthy standing ovation and repeated cheers for Scorsese, who at 80 years old is premiering hisfirst film at Cannes since 1985's "After Hours."
The red carpet for the festival drew a wide spectrum of stars, includingCate Blanchett,Salma Hayek,Paul DanoandIsabelle Huppert.
'Killers of the Flower Moon' release date
"Killers of the Flower Moon" is scheduled to be released Oct. 6 inselect theaters ahead of an Oct. 20wide release.
It eventually will stream on Apple+, though a specific date has not been made public.
'Excruciating':Robert De Niro describes leg injury pain while filming 'Killers of the Flower Moon'
'Killers of the Flower Moon' cast
The cast is stacked with Oscar winners, including DiCaprio, who stars asErnest Burkhart, an Oklahoma man who marriesMollie (Lily Gladstone), a member of a wealthy Osage family.
De Niro stars as a local power player, William Hale, while Jesse Plemons plays a former Texas Ranger Tom White sent to investigate the killings. Brendan Fraser, fresh off of winning his first Academy Award for his performance in "The Whale," also has a role in the film as Hale's corrupt attorney.
'Killers of the Flower Moon' reviews, Rotten Tomatoes
What are the critics saying? In short, they love it.
On Rotten Tomatoes, "Killers of the Flower Moon" holds a 97% "fresh" approval rating based on 64 reviews.
New York Times film critic Manohla Dargiscalled the film "shocking, at times crushingly sorrowful, a true-crime mystery that in its bone-chilling details can make it feel closer to a horror movie."
Calling the film "the best performance of Leonardo DiCaprio’s entire career," IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich praised Scorsese for turning “Killers of the Flower Moon” "into the kind of story that he can still tell better than anyone else: A story about greed, corruption, and the mottled soul of a country that was born from the belief that it belonged to anyone callous enough to take it."
David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter wrote that the lengthy runtime "is fully justified in an escalating tragedy that never loosens its grip." Rooney further praised the screenplay, direction, cinematography, score, and cast performances, particularly Gladstone's.
InThe Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called the film an "epic of creeping, existential horror about the birth of the American century, a macabre tale of quasi-genocidal serial killings."
Is 'Killers of the Flower Moon' based on a true story?
Yes.
The film is an adaptation of journalist David Grann's 2017 nonfiction book of the same name. “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI" became a New York Times best-seller and National Book Award finalist.
In the book, Grann investigates the complex plot that unfolded to eliminate Osage people tied to the oil deposits discovered on their land, the newly-formed FBI's investigation of the murders, and the eventual legal and criminal battle that played out in the courts. Officially, 20 Osage victims were killed, though Grann suspects the actual number could swell into the hundreds.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @EricLagatta.
