Leonardo DiCaprio will play cult leader Jim Jones in an upcoming film. The new film will explore how Jones orchestrated the Jonestown mass suicide that caused over 900 deaths in November 1978.
Jones founded the Peoples Temple religious organization in Indianapolis in 1955 and constructed Jonestown in Guyana in 1974. When U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his delegation arrived to investigate Jonestown in 1978, they were killed by Jones’ followers. Following the killings, Jones ordered a mass murder-suicide among his followers by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid. The mass suicide claimed the lives of over 900 people in November 1978.
Deadline confirmed that DiCaprio, 46, will star in the biopic as Jones. Venom writer Scott Rosenberg wrote the script and will executive produce with DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson.
Next up for DiCaprio is a starring role in the Netflix film Don’t Look Up and Martin Scorsese’s new movie Killers of the Flower Moon.
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