Ron Howard And Dustin Lance Black To Adapt UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN

To the disappointment of some and the relief of others, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Universal's ambitious plans fell through the other day to adapt Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series for both film and TV. But it looks like Howard and Grazer have found another adaptation project to sink their teeth into.

Deadline is exclusively reporting that Warner Bros. is in the process of putting together a package to adapt the book Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, with an eye on Howard to direct and Oscar-winning Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black to write the script. Howard will also produce with his Imagine Entertainment partner Grazer. The trio just worked together on the upcoming Clint Eastwood-directed J. Edgar biopic.

The non-fiction book is by Jon Krakauer, the same author of Into the Wild (which was adapted into an excellent film by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch) and Into Thin Air (adapted into a TV movie starring Peter Horton and Christopher McDonald). According to Deadline the book is about the following:

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 brothers were members of a splinter group called the School of Prophets, which adhered to original tenets of the faith that included polygamy and a belief that true believers could speak directly with God. These were rooted as the faith grew to a mainstream appeal, but the brothers remain convinced they were obeying God's command when they committed the heinous crime.

The book caused some controversy upon its release, with the President of the Latter-day Saints Church (or LDS Church) criticizing Krakauer for "condemning religion generally" and presenting "mistakes and incorrect assertions." While this can obviously cause problems it also gets the story more attention and I'm sure Howard and Black will use that to their advantage. Having said that the two are not exactly known for producing the most controversial of films, so we could be looking at a more toned down version of the book.