Leonardo DiCaprio in talks to play Jim Jones in Peoples Temple movie
Leonardo DiCaprio is in final talks to play Bay Area-based religious cult leader Jim Jones in a feature film, Variety has confirmed.
As the leader of the Peoples Temple, Jones was behind the November 1978 mass suicide at the Jonestown jungle commune in Guyana that took more than 900 lives.
His followers drank cyanide-adulterated punch hours after Jones’ guards opened fire on members of a fact-finding group led by Rep. Leo Ryan. The Bay Area congressman and four other people were killed. Jones, 47, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head.
DiCaprio, 46, will also be a co-producer of the project. It is to be written by Scott Rosenberg, whose scripts include “Venom,” “Con Air,” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and “Jumanji: The Next Level.”
Deadline was first to report news of DiCaprio’s involvement in the project.
Besides several documentaries about Jonestown, there was a 1980 television miniseries, “Guyana Tragedy,” in which Powers Boothe played Jim Jones and Ned Beatty played Ryan.