DiCaprio will produce and star in a biopic about the controversial figure behind the Jonestown mass suicide that claimed more than 900 lives.
Hollywood is drinkingLeonardo DiCaprio’s Flavor-Aid once again, as the Oscar-winning producer-star is set to play cult leader Jim Jones in a new biopic about the controversial figure’s life.
EW has confirmed theRevenantactor will lead distributor MGM’s upcomingJim Jonesmovie in the titular role, portraying the man who orchestrated the storied Jonestown mass suicide that claimed the lives of over 900 people in November 1978.
Leonardo DiCaprio will play cult leader Jim Jones in new biopic.Kurt Krieger/Corbis via Getty Images; Stephanie Maze/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
BAFTA-nominatedHigh FidelityandVenomwriter Scott Rosenberg penned the film’s script, whichDeadlinereported will chronicle Jones' influence as a religious leader who founded Indianapolis' Peoples Temple in 1955 before outright rejecting traditional Christianity and claiming to be God himself.
He then constructed Jonestown in Guyana in 1974, and recruited a cult following to live with him in a socialist escape free from governmental control.
After killing U.S. government representative Leo Ryan, who fronted a delegation sent to investigate Jonestown, Jones orchestrated a massive murder-suicide that involved hundreds of his followersmany of them childrendrinking Flavor Aid mixed with cyanide.
DiCapriowho will produceJim Jonesthrough his Appian Way company alongside Jennifer Davissonnext appears opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep in Netflix’sprospective awardscontenderDon’t Look Upfrom director Adam McKay.
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