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Jason Momoa stars in "The Red Road," a Sundance drama set in the mountains of northeastern New Jersey.

(Tina Rowden)

The Ramapough Lenape, the Native Americans who live in the mountains of northern New Jersey, have fought for but failed to receive federal recognition of their tribe.

But Hollywood is suddenly taking notice — for better or worse.

"Out of the Furnace," the recent Christian Bale film about bare-knuckles brawling, characterizes the tribe (unnamed in the film) as violent inbreeds, which led members to file a $50 million lawsuit against the producers.

Now comes "The Red Road," a dark thriller starring Jason Momoa (the warlord Khal Drogo from "Game of Thrones") and Martin Henderson ("The Ring") about the tensions between the members of a marginalized Native American tribe and their small town neighbors. The six-episode series premieres on the Sundance Channel tonight at 9 p.m.

REVIEW: Dangerous curves ahead on 'The Red Road'

The tragedy at the heart of "The Red Road" is not dissimilar to the infamous 2006 shooting death of a young Ramapough Lenape man named Emil Mann by a park ranger. Writer and executive producer Aaron Guzikowski (he wrote the Hugh Jackman vigilante film "Prisoners") says this is not a fictionalized take on the incident. "But the world, I wanted it to feel authentic, and I wanted it to ring true."

"The Red Road" is Sundance’s second original scripted series after "Rectify," about a man released from death row after nearly two decades, which will return for a second season later this year. Guzikowski hopes "The Red Road" will be picked up for another season, but says there is resolution to the central plot at the end of the season. "It can stand on its own or it can go on."

We spoke to the Los Angeles-based Guzikowski yesterday by phone about his interest in the Ramapough Lenape, the themes of "The Red Road" and how Momoa’s character is "a more regular guy than Khal Drogo."

Tamara Tunie, left, and Kiowa Gordon co-star in the Sundance Channel's "The Red Road," which explores tensions between the residents of a small New Jersey town and the members of a federally unrecognized Native American tribe based on the Ramapough Lenape.

Q. You grew up in Massachusetts. How did you learn about the Ramapough Lenape?

A. I had kind of heard about them while I was living in New York. When I moved to Los Angeles about three years ago, executive producer Sarah Condon shared with me a story about the Emil Mann shooting. That got me really interested. I took a trip out there, met with some members of the tribe, got the lay of the land. I was just kind of mystified that there was this sort of hidden world I had lived 26 miles away from all this time.

Q. Did you want to tell a story about this particular subculture and its tensions, and did the themes of "The Red Road" — children replaying the mistakes of their parents — come naturally out of that?

A. The subculture does inspire a lot of things —the idea that they were unable to gain federal recognition because of controversy about their origins. That our understanding of the past can change our life in the present is just an interesting idea to me: reinterpreting historical events as we move into the future, constantly re-evaluating who we are, themes of identity.

Q. The Ramapough Lenape were very unhappy with the portrayal of the tribe in the recent film "Out of the Furnace" — in fact, they sued the makers. But you don't explicitly identify the tribe in "The Red Road" as Ramapoughs.

A. We wanted to let them have their privacy. We didn’t want to draw undue attention to them … We weren’t making a documentary. We definitely drew inspiration from the Ramapoughs for sure, but we weren’t attempting to recreate that exactly.

Q. You're clearly attracted to very dark material. Where does that come from?

A. I couldn’t really say. I grew up drawing and writing. Most of my drawings were kind of dark, Hieronymus Bosch-type of things. For whatever reason, it’s kind of comforting to me — not grim, not violent, but just sort of darkness is kind of beautiful. It appeals to me. That seems to be where my mind wanders into.

Q. And yet you're the father of two …

A. (Laughs.) When I wrote "Prisoners," they hadn’t been born yet. I don’t think I would have been able to write that if they had.

Q. One of my favorite things about "The Red Road" is Jason Momoa. Did you have him in mind when you wrote the part?

A. I did think this is going to be a hard part to cast, but I didn’t have anyone in mind. … At first we were not sure we were going to be able to find somebody. I had seen Jason on "Game of Thrones." I knew that he was a great presence, very fascinating to watch. I’ve never seen him play a more grounded kind of guy. He’s a more regular guy than Khal Drogo. He was actually nice enough to put himself on tape for us. I thought, this guy is a tremendous actor. He just really has so much nuance and so much going on behind the eyes.

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