Killers of the Flower Moon: Leonardo DiCaprio calls Robert De Niro’s William King Hale the “banality of evil”

Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon will open worldwide, simultaneously in theatres around the world, in partnership with Paramount Pictures, on Friday, October 20. Following its global theatrical run, the film will debut on Apple TV+. Starring a cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, the film premiered earlier this year at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where it was met with broad critical acclaim and an extended standing ovation.

Killers of the Flower Moon: Leonardo DiCaprio calls Robert De Niro’s William King Hale the “banality of evil”

Now, ahead of the Killers of the Flower Moon release in cinemas and on Apple+, Paramount Pictures has released a new featurette explaining the details behind De Niro’s character William Hale. “William King Hale is an extraordinary character," Martin Scorsese says. “He was respectful on the one hand and a murderous thug on the other hand.”

“Robert De Niro is one of the people on this planet that can change the temperature in a room,” adds Lily Gladstone. “He is so powerful.” Leonardo DiCaprio called Hale the “banality of evil.”

Directed by Scorsese and written for the screen by Eric Roth and Scorsese, based on David Grann’s best-selling book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion and Tantoo Cardinal.