‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Called a Masterpiece by Leonardo DiCaprio, Says Costume Designer Jacqueline West
Speaking at a masterclass for Qatar’s Doha Film Institute, four-time Oscar-nominee costume designer Jacqueline West could not refrain herself from sharing plenty of enthusiasm towards Martin Scorsese’s upcoming film, Killers of the Flower Moon.
Via Deadline, West, who served as the costume designer on The Revenant and Dune: Part One, said the following at the end of breaking down her career:
“After ‘Dune: Part One’, I had the most incredible experience of my film career. I went to work with Martin Scorsese. I can’t talk about that film yet because nothing has been released but I just have to say it’s the combination of someone I always wanted to work with and my absolute dream project. It’s called ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and it was brilliantly done not just on my part but by everybody.”
The film was co-written by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, and serves as an adaptation of the book of the same name by David Grann. It is the story of the FBI investigation behind a series of murders that took place in Osage County, Oklahoma, in the 1920s, after big oil deposits were found beneath the land. Asked to expand upon her words by Deadline, she added:
“My husband said after I worked with Scorsese, ‘Okay, now you can quit. That’s the pinnacle.
It follows the book, and the book was totally captivating. The native cast was incredible and the acting, Lily Gladstone is incredible. The images were thrilling. It looks amazing. I watched it all being shot but I haven’t seen any of it.”
West had worked with Leonardo DiCaprio before on The Revenant, and they’ve been pretty close since; the costume designer revealed that after talking to him about the film, the actor described it as a masterpiece:
“I was talking to Leo about it. We had lunch before I came here. He said, ‘Jackie, I think we worked on a masterpiece’. I thought for Leo to say that, was something. He doesn’t say that lightly. He has been in the business since he was a little boy.”
Killers of the Flower Moon will be the first movie that unites both of Scorsese’s muses, as Robert De Niro is also part of the cast, albeit in a much smaller role than DiCaprio’s, according to reports. Jesse Plemons is reportedly the lead, joined by Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser, Lily Gladstone, and John Lithgow, among others. Apple produced and will be distributing the film, hopefully, this year; there were reports in 2022 that the film could be eyeing a Cannes debut, though it hasn’t been confirmed yet (Scorsese is known for taking a long time to edit his films). It’s not the only major production being looked at for Cannes, with HBO considering a debut of their upcoming series The Idol there, and Warner Bros. and Disney possibly looking at showing off Barbie and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, respectively, as well.
This isn’t the only 2023 project Jacqueline West has worked on, as the designer was brought back to work with Denis Villeneuve on Dune: Part Two. According to her, it took some convincing for her to join the first film in the first place, but after hearing the director’s pitch, she couldn’t resist. West, along with the entire team behind the production, was brought back for the sequel, which wrapped production a few months ago and is looking at a late 2023 release. According to her, Dune: Part Two will have a larger scope than the first film, and also features a knock-out performance by Academy Award nominee Austin Butler (Elvis):
“We made a lot of costumes. In ‘Part Two’, you really dive into the different worlds of Dune. We see what the emperor’s world looks like. We go to his planet. We spend a lot of time on Giedi Prime, the Harkonnen planet. We spend a lot of time in Stellan Skarsgård’s [Vladimir Harkonnen] world. Feyd-Rautha [Harkonnen] also comes into this one, brilliantly played by Austin Butler, Elvis. He is pretty fabulous in it,”
Dune: Part Two lands in theaters on November 3.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
