What is the ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ synopsis, and is it based on a book?

It’s less than six months to go until Martin Scorsese’s latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, will land in theaters, and while we’ve yet to have been given a trailer for the upcoming flick, it’s worth going over what we know about the plot and its source material so far.

The film is set to adapt events from real life as it focuses on a series of murders of members of the Osage Nation, a Native American tribe, in the 1920s. Jesse Plemons plays Tom White, the American law officer known for solving the case. Leonardo DiCaprio is also set to star in the film alongside Robert De Niro and Brendan Fraser.

While the events depicted in the upcoming movie are inspired by true events, the film will closely follow David Grann’s non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. That’s quite a mouthful, but the book pretty much follows the investigation into the murders by the newly formed FBI which reports directly to a 29-year-old J. Edgar Hoover. It also documents the subsequent trial of the murderers. Fans who enjoyed the book are a little nervous to see the film do it justice.

Killers of the Flower Moon is David Grann’s third non-fiction book and the film will also be the third adaptation of his work, with The Lost City of Z and The Old Man & the Gun being released in 2017 and 2018 respectively. There are two more adaptations set to come out after Flower Moon as well, so we can only assume Grann is rolling in the dough right now. The book was almost immediately snatched up, with Imperative Entertainment buying the film rights to it way back in 2016 before it even hit shelves officially.

While it’s still a bit of a wait until Scorsese’s adaptation, if you want to do some research around the actual events, David Grann’s book would be a great place to start.