Under The Banner Of Heaven: Mormon Murder Mystery Adds Wyatt Russell And Sam Worthington

Wyatt Russell, Sam Worthington, Denise Gough, and Rory Culkin are now united "Under the Banner of Heaven" with Andrew Garfield. They're among the names that have joined the Garfield-led Mormon murder mystery series for FX on Hulu. 

Earlier this summer, we reported that Garfield would star alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones in a TV adaptation of John Krakauer's "New York Times"-bestselling nonfiction crime novel, "Under the Banner of Heaven." Dustin Lance Black, who won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with "Milk," is penning the script, while David Mackenzie, the director of 2016 Best Picture nominee, "Hell or High Water," is set to helm.

Now, the ensemble for this limited series is filling out more. Deadline reports that Russell, Worthington, Gough, and Culkin are joining the cast, in addition to Billy Howle, Gil Birmingham, Adelaide Clemens, Seth Numrich, Chloe Pirrie, Sandra Seacat, and Christopher Heyerdahl. The plot, via Deadline, "follows a detective whose faith is tested as he investigates a brutal murder that seems to be connected to an esteemed Utah family's spiral into LDS fundamentalism and their distrust of the government."

For "Under the Banner of Heaven," Black is serving as series creator, and he will executive produce with McKenzie and Imagine Television's Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Samie Kim Falvey, and Anna Culp. Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan of Aggregate Films and Gillian Berrie are also attached here as executive producers.

Religious Roots

The film studio side of Imagine produced "The Da Vinci Code" and the rest of the Robert Langdon movie series, starring Tom Hanks and based on Dan Brown's bestselling novels. These same names from Imagine — Howard, Grazer, Falvey, and Culp — are all involved in Peacock's upcoming TV adaptation of another Langdon book, "The Lost Symbol."

"The Da Vinci Code" dealt with religion and was controversial in its day, with various countries censoring it and the Catholic Church criticizing it for its fictional plot involving a conspiracy to cover up the true nature of the Holy Grail. Garfield, of course, is no stranger to religious films, having played Christian characters in both "Hacksaw Ridge" and Martin Scorsese's "Silence" in 2016.

For his part, Black grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), so this project will be drawing from some of his personal background. As we reported earlier, he had this to say about the long road of "Under the Banner of Heaven" to television:

"After so many years of work, I'm incredibly grateful to Imagine and FX for their patience with and commitment to bringing this story to screen. Raised in the LDS faith, my hope is that this true-crime thriller might shed light on the horrific brutalities perpetrated in the name of God in our own backyards."

Production on "Under the Banner of Heaven" has begun in Calgary, but there's no word yet on when exactly it is coming to FX on Hulu.