Robert De Niro Has Suffered A Serious Injury
Robert De Niro has suffered a leg injury while filming in Oklahoma. Here's what we know so far.
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Robert De Niro is currently flying home to New York after injuring his leg in Oklahoma. He was in the Sooner State filming Killers of the Flower Moon, a movie he’s working on with filmmaker Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. So far, Deadline has been able to confirm that the accident didn’t occur on set, but there has been no official word on how the accident occurred or how bad the injury was.
Initial reports said that Robert De Niro was flying home to New York solely for medical treatment, but a rep told Fox News that the actor was always scheduled to take two weeks off to fly home to New York, making it sound as though his leg injury is not a concern, though they’d confirmed he’ll be seeking medical treatment on arrival in New York. TMZ says that their sources have confirmed that De Niro was off set when it happened, he’s flying home, and they’ve already filmed everything they needed to up to this point with the actor.
TMZ also heard that the crew was unexpectedly told to take Friday off, which makes it sound as though Robert De Niro stopped filming that day due to his injury, though that has not been confirmed. TMZ was not sure whether he’ll be back to film more after he’s healed, or if production will be slowed due to this injury. The full extent of the 77-year-old actor’s leg injury has not been made clear.
According to IndieWire, filming began on Killers of the Flower Moon on April 19th, so Robert De Niro hasn’t been in Oklahoma long. They expect that filming will continue for a total of seven months, so six more to go. It sounds like De Niro should still be expected back.
Killers of the Flower Moon is based on a non-fiction book of the same name. The movie was set to begin filming in 2020, but naturally was delayed due to the pandemic. The movie has been rumored to have a $200 million budget, making it Martin Scorsese’s most expensive movie yet. The story surrounds a powerful rancher named William Hale, played by Robert De Niro. Hale worked with cattle. But he became famous because of the Reign of Terror from 1921 to 1926. During this five year period, Native Americans were murdered over oil rights in Osage County, Oklahoma.
While the frequency of the murders was worst during that five year period, between 1918 to 1931 at least 60 wealthy Native Americans in Oklahoma were murdered. Most of these murders are unsolved, and most people do not believe that only one person was responsible. William Hale was one of the few to be convicted after he murdered his nephew’s wife and then other members of her family.
Leonardo DiCaprio is playing Robert De Niro’s nephew in the film, and Lily Gladstone is playing his wife. Recently, AppleTV shared the first still from the movie.
If what his rep shared with Fox News is true, it’s convenient that Robert De Niro already had two weeks scheduled off when he suffered his recent leg injury. Hopefully, he’ll take it easy and take extra time if he needs to. The prolific actor still has other projects lined up for after this one, but there’s no hurry to get there. Killers of the Flower Moon doesn’t currently have a set release date, though we’re expecting to see it in early 2022.
