Denver council member's 1989 book on white supremacy to be made into film starring Jude Law

It gives Kevin Flynn no joy to say that his nonfiction book about the white supremacy movement would have made a great movie when it was published in 1989 – and it will make a great movie now. Because that means “the more things change – the more they stay the same,” said the investigative reporter turned Denver city councilman.

Slavery. The Ku Klux Klan. The Tulsa Riots. Jim Crow laws. Rodney King. Charlottesville. George Floyd. Jan. 6. Unite the Right. Scott Adams. 

“It’s never gone away,” said Flynn. “It just resurfaces cyclically.”

“Bruders Schweigen,” also known as “The Silent Brotherhood” and “The Aryan Resistance Movement,” was a neo-Nazi domestic terrorist organization founded by Robert Mathews and active from 1983-84. But the media called it simply “The Order,” Flynn said – because it fit better in a newspaper headline. The anti-Semitic group sought revolution against the American government and the secession of five northwest states to create a separate, all-white country. They raised funds through armed bank robberies. And they assassinated outspoken Jewish radio talk-show host Alan Berg in front of his Denver home.

When 10 members of The Order were convicted of racketeering and two more for the 1984 Berg murder, “a lot of people brushed off their hands and said, ‘Well, we took care of that,” said Flynn. “But here we are in 2023 looking at the same forces at work in American society.”

Flynn wrote extensively about The Order for the Rocky Mountain News with Gary Gerhardt and John Accola – a trio known at the newspaper as “The Gang of Three.” In 1989, Flynn and Gerhardt published a book called “The Silent Brotherhood: Inside America's Racist Underground” covering the group’s rise through its 1987 sentencing in a Denver federal court. Reporter Frank Kessler called it “a chilling, frightening book.” And it almost never happened.

Flynn remembers being at a Seattle press conference in 1985 when New York Times reporter Wayne King casually told him: “A literary agent got hold of me and said, ‘Is there a book in this?” King said he thought there was, but he was too busy to write it.

“I grabbed Wayne by the lapel and said, ‘Give me that person’s name!’” said Flynn, who already had tried to interest book editors in the story, and had 19 rejection letters to show for it – including one from Ned Chase, father of Chevy Chase.

The book was finally optioned by MacMillan Free Press – and Flynn and Gerhardt used their tiny advance to hit the road to do more research. Because that’s what reporters do. They followed the Aryan Trail. They were welcomed by FBI agents, jailhouse inmates and leading supremacist Richard Butler alike. “It was the greatest professional experience of my life,” Flynn said.

Last month, it was announced that, 34 years after publication, Flynn’s book is being made into a major motion picture starring Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult. Australian Justin Kurzel (“Macbeth”) will direct, and ​​AGC Studio will produce.

Flynn, who was first elected to the Denver City Council in 2015, was sent a script written by Zach Baylin (“King Richard”) two years ago. But he’s a busy guy. “I didn’t read the whole thing,” he said with a laugh. “I read the first few pages and the last few pages – and then I had to get ready for the next council meeting.”

During the trials, Flynn found unmistakable parallels between the Nazi and Neo-Nazi movements. And, chillingly, the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol as well.

“Gary and I often thought about Hannah Arendt and her characterization of Adolf Eichman and ‘the banality of evil,’” Flynn said.” What struck us then – and I think would still be true today – is that the individuals who got caught up in all of it were living ordinary lives until they had some sort of a breaking point.

“Almost none of the 42 who faced criminal charges had criminal records before they embarked on this unlikely mission to break off from the United States into a whites-only nation. Most of them were ordinary people who just got sucked into the group by a charismatic leader in Robert Matthews.”

In the film, Law will play the law (as in FBI agent Wane Mannis), while Hoult will play Matthews. Flynn will have no creative input on the film, which begins production in May in Alberta, Canada. But he joked that maybe the casting director shouldn't entirely overlook him.

“After all, I do have a background in the theater,” he said with a laugh. (Flynn really did grow up in musical theater outside of South Jersey, starring both as Winthrop in “The Music Man” and Randolph in “Bye Bye Birdie” before the age of 11.)

It would be indelicate to ask Flynn what the studio paid for the rights to adapt his book, but it’s not as much as you might think.

“People might think it’s gotta be in the millions,” Flynn said. “Well, no. … It might redo our kitchen.”