Dustin Lance Black: Under the Banner of Heaven Interview
Under the Banner of Heaven depicts the true story of the 1984 Lafferty murders, which took the lives of Brenda Lafferty and her 15 year-old daughter. The FX original series, which premieres April 28 on Hulu, follows Detective Jeb Pyre (played by Andrew Garfield) as he attempts to unravel the truth of the killings and is horrified to learn the role Mormon fundamentalism played in them.
The limited series consists of 7 episodes, and it explores the motivations of the killers as well as the reactions and fear of the surrounding community. Most of the characters portrayed are based on real people involved in the case, which meant screenwriter Dustin Lance Black had to spend a great deal of time researching. Though he had Jon Krakauer's best-selling novel by the same name to base his work off of, he went beyond its confines to fill in the gaps.
Related: Who Killed Brenda Lafferty? Under The Banner Of Heaven True Story
Dustin Lance Black spoke to Screen Rant about why the true crime story spoke so deeply to him, how he fine-tuned the concept for a decade, and why it was such a privilege to collaborate with the original author of the novel, Jon Krakauer.
Screen Rant: I'm such a fan of this book. I'm such a fan of Jon Krakauer. Adapting this has to be a feat. What was the biggest challenge for you?
Dustin Lance Black: The biggest challenge, hands down, was recreating that feeling when you read it. It's not every book that does it. It's certainly not every television [series] that does it. But that sense, that the reader or viewer has to be actively engaged. The reader in that book had to be looking at the history of the Mormon Church in order to figure out this crime, and I wanted that for the television series.
Frankly, let's
Read more on screenrant.com
