I’ll never forget the first time I saw Robert De Niro onscreen. This will almost certainly reveal my age, but I was introduced to him in Meet the Parents, as the grumpy dad who forces Ben Stiller’s Greg Focker to take a hilarious lie-detector test. Stiller may be the star of that film, but De Niro steals the show.
Since then, I’ve wondered why the actor wasn’t on my TV more often. Of course, the man was legendary in Goodfellas, The Irishman, and The Godfather Part II, but why couldn’t the man pull a Joe Pesci and star in some streamer’s random TV series?
Well, readers, the time has come. At a young eighty-one years old, De Niro has booked his first television gig—though I’m willing to bet he’s probably passed on dozens of offers before it. The upcoming Netflix series Zero Day is a political drama with De Niro as George Mullen, a former American president who helps the current president (Angela Bassett) handle a cyberattack. (Side note: Why do female presidents only exist in fictional worlds?)
Anyway, if De Niro said yes to appearing on the small screen, then Zero Day must be worth the watch. An official synopsis of the show promises pure chaos: “As disinformation runs rampant and the personal ambition of power brokers in technology, Wall Street, and government collide, Mullen’s unwavering search for the truth forces him to confront his own dark secrets while risking all he holds dear.”
Besides starring on the series, De Niro serves as a producer. Director Eric Newman (Griselda) told Netflix Tudum that the actor was very involved in the production. “[De Niro] very much became our partner in this process,” he said. “Very hands-on, very involved, read everything at every stage, and it’s been an incredible honour and privilege.”
Zero Day also features Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, and Matthew Modine, along with guest appearances by Bill Camp, Dan Stevens, Gaby Hoffmann, Clark Gregg, and McKinley Belcher III.
Luckily, we won’t have to wait long to see the drama play out. Zero Day premieres on February 20, 2025.
Originally published on Esquire US
Killers of the Flower Moon took a while to be adapted. The rights to adapt David Grann's book started in 2016 but like any other project, the development of the film was halted due to the global pandemic. Still, the film was finally finished. It made its premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023 and received a nine-minute standing ovation.
While we have to wait a few months to watch it, Apple TV+ unveils the trailer of Killers of the Flower Moon today.
With stirring Native American pow wow chants spliced with dubstep ("Stadium Pow Wow" by The Halluci Nation née A Tribe Called Red), the trailer brings across the palpable tension of a community gripped with terror.
The American Western crime drama (that's a mouthful) is based on the real-life murders that plagued the Osage Nation. Set in the 1920s, the epic is directed and co-produced by Martin Scorsese and stars an ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons.
Given the subject matter, Scorsese involved the Osage Nation during the film's development. In a press release, Scorsese said, "We are thrilled to finally start production on Killers of the Flower Moon in Oklahoma. To be able to tell this story on the land where these events took place is incredibly important and critical to allowing us to portray an accurate depiction of the time and people. We're grateful to Apple, the Oklahoma Film and Music Office and The Osage Nation, especially all our Osage consultants and cultural advisors, as we prepare for this shoot."
In light of the current book bans and revisionisms in America, we are glad that someone made use of the medium to spotlight America's "hidden histories". (Another example was HBO's Watchmen which featured the Tulsa Race Massacre.)
America's history may not strike a chord with Singapore audiences but the cast and the dramatisation of a real-life event should be enough to get butts in seats.
Killers of the Flower Moon is tentatively slated to be in theatres on 6 October and later for online streaming on Apple TV+.
