In 2007, Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, having previously spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list after its publication in 2002, was adapted into a film directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch.
Eight years after the publication of Krakauer’s third novel, Under the Banner of Heaven, comes the announcement that Warner Bros is working on a deal to adapt the work. The deal involves Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J Edgar) writing the adaptation for Ron Howard to direct, and his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer to produce.
Under the Banner Of Heaven focuses on two brothers who murdered the wife and infant daughter of their younger brother. The killers claimed they were acting on orders from God, consistent with their interpretation of a fundamentalist interpretation that goes back to the formation of Mormonism. The book served as inspiration for Tom Elliott and Pawel Gula who, in 2006, produced the documentary Damned to Heaven.
For Black, Howard and Grazer this is their second collaboration together, having assisted on Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, which arrives in theaters on October 24, 2011.
