When normal meets amazing, it’s television heaven. Normal People‘s Daisy Edgar-Jones and The Amazing Spider-man‘s Andrew Garfield have both been cast in the upcoming FX on Hulu series, Under the Banner of Heaven, via TVLine.
Under the Banner of Heaven is based on Jon Krakauer’s (Into the Wild) novel of the same name, and is set to be a limited series following a religious detective named Pyre investigating gruesome murders that have ties to one of the most well-respected families in his Utah town. According to TVLine, as Pyre follows the mysteries surrounding the crimes, he discovers the dangers of fundamentalist LDS members’ government conspiracies.
Detective Pyre, who will be played by Garfield, is an elder in the Church of Latter Day Saints whose investigation of the murder leads him toward questions surrounding his own faith and the teachings of his church. According to TVLine, Edgar-Jones is set to play a young devout Mormon named Brenda who’s murder Pyre is investigating. Also attached to the project are Dustin Lance Black (producer, Milk), who created the limited series and will serve as its executive producer, and David Mackenzie (director, Hell or High Water), who will be directing the series.
When speaking about Under the Banner of Heaven, Brian Grazer (producer, A Beautiful Mind) and Ron Howard (director, Apollo 13) stated “We at Imagine have been dedicated to telling this powerful story for nearly a decade. With FX’s belief and support and Lance Black’s relentless commitment we are, at last, on our way. We couldn’t be more excited to be collaborating with David Mackenzie, Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones to bring this project to life.” (TVLine)
According to Deadline, Black and Howard attempted to adapt Under the Banner of Heaven into a feature film for Warner Bros. to no avail. Now, both will executive produce the limited series television adaptation.