Warner Bros. is negotiating for the rights to Jon Krakauer's 2003 book "Under the Banner of Heaven," TheWrap has confirmed.
If the studio acquires the rights, Ron Howard will direct the movie and Dustin Lance Black will write the script.
It's a heavy book about two brothers — members of a radical, breakaway sect of Mormons — who kill another brother's wife and daughter, saying God told them to commit the act.
The book discusses the origins of the Mormon religion and goes deep into its fundamentalist sects, which have broken from the mainline Latter Day Saints church.
Black won the Oscar for his 2008 biopic "Milk," and wrote "J. Edgar," the Clint Eastwood biopic of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer produced that movie, scheduled to be released Oct. 21.
The writer also has some background with the history of the LDS church: He grew up in a Mormon household.
Howard, Grazer, Shannon Costello, Jason Bateman and Stephanie Davis will produce.
Deadline first reported the news.
