Leonardo DiCaprio to Play Religious Cult Leader Jim Jones in Upcoming Film
MGM is set to produce and develop a new features film project titled Jim Jones, which will tell the story of the 1970s religious cult leader, who was behind the tragic mass-suicide at Jonestown in which over 900 men, woman, and children died. Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star in the film as Jones, and he will also produce the film through his production company Appian Way. This is certainly going to be an interesting role for DiCaprio.
Jones founded the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis in 1955, “and promoted it as a fully integrated congregation promoting Christian Socialism. By the 1970s he openly rejected traditional Christianity and claimed that he was God. He constructed Jonestown in Guyana in 1974 and spurred a following to live with him there as he touted a socialist paradise free from U.S. government oppression. Amid rumors of human rights abuses, the U.S. government sent a delegation led by U.S. Representative Leo Ryan in November 1978. Ryan along with four other Jonestown defectors would eventually be gunned down by Jones’ followers. Following the shooting, Jones orchestrated a mass murder-suicide of his followers, which took 918 commune members, 304 of them children in an act that entailed drinking Flavor Aid laced with cyanide.”
I remember when I first really learned about Jonestown and Jim Jones. It was my freshman year high school and the events I read about made me sick. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I couldn’t shake it. It was one of those real life horrors that stuck with me, and it was unbelievable to me at the time that people could be so evil.
The script for the film was written by Scott Rosenberg (Venom, Beautiful Girls, Con Air, High Fidelity, Gone in 60 Seconds, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level), and MGM picked it up for a seven-figure deal.
DiCaprio will next be seen in Netflix’s Adam McKay comedy Don’t Look Up opposite Jennifer Lawrence. He also will be seen in Martin Scorsese’s Apple Original Films’ Killers of the Flower Moon.
Source: Deadline