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‘Killers of the Flower Moon’: Who Outbid DiCaprio, Clooney, Pitt, For Rights To The Film About The Origins Of The FBI?

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 02:19 PST, Mar 18, 2016

Killers of the Flower Moon has ignited a full-on bidding war between J.J. Abrams and Leonardo DiCaprio on one side, and Amy Pascal, George Clooney and Brad Pitt on the other, according to Deadline.

But it turns out both of the “teams” were defeated by the highest bid of $5 million offered by Imperative Entertainment. Imperative Entertainment, which was launched in 2014 by Tim Kring and Lauren Sanchez, has officially won the rights to Killers of the Flower Moon.

But what is it about? Flower Moon: An American Crime and the Birth of the FBI is a new book written by David Grann, the author of the bestseller The Lost City of Z, which will hit theaters later this year.

Killers of the Flower Moon tells the story about a series of unsolved murders of the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma. The Osage Indians were granted revenue rights to oil, which was found under their lands. And as the Indians start getting murdered, the unsolved cases keep piling up and are soon transferred to a newly created law enforcement agency known as the FBI.

The FBI is set to fight against corrupting influences that surround oil money in Oklahoma in order to solve the case. Killers of the Flower Moon is basically a nonfiction book that tells the story of how the FBI came to prominence by solving this mysterious case. But it turns out the author of Killers of the Flower Moon didn’t think that having Oscar-winning Leonardo DiCaprio and legendary director J.J. Abrams on board for the movie adaptation would be enough to make a it masterpiece. Instead, the author of the bestseller The Lost City of Z and chose Imperative Entertainment’s bid, which offered a whooping $5 million to get the rights. However, according to Collider, if DiCaprio and Abrams landed the rights to Killers of the Flower Moon, it wouldn’t mean that the Oscar-winning actor would star and the Star Wars director would direct. But the two would surely produce the film. Killers of the Flower Moon hasn’t even been published yet, and it already ignited such a huge book rights auction, with Deadline calling it “the biggest and wildest book rights auction in memory.” Doubleday is set to publish the book next spring. Imperative Entertainment’s team includes Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas, who will be producing the future movie based on Grann’s nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon. In his interview with Deadline, Friedkin said that Grann’s bestseller The Lost City Of Z was the only book he has ever read “cover to cover” and then “immediately picked up” to read again.

“With Killers Of The Flower Moon, David has once again crafted a unique and compelling story and I’m honored that he has allowed us to bring it to life on screen.”

According to reports, money was a priority for the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, which is why he chose the highest bid with no high-profile names attached to it. It’s also worth mentioning that the bids that came from Abrams and DiCaprio as well as Pascal, Clooney and Pitt were reportedly about half of what Imperative Entertainment offered. However, there is still a slight chance that one or more of the big stars who offered their bids for the rights (Abrams, DiCaprio, Pascal, Clooney and Pitt) could still sign a contract with Imperative Entertainment and get involved in working on Killers of the Flower Moon.

The movie adaptation of Grann’s bestseller Lost City Of Z is in the process of filming, and is directed by James Gray, while Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland and Sienna Miller are starring. Aside from Killers of the Flower Moon, Grann also wrote an article titled A Murder Foretold, which has been adapted into a movie titled Me And Earl And The Dying Girl and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]

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