US Holywood star Leonardo DiCaprio in final talks to star in MGM's movie about the 1970s religious cult leader Jim Jones, who was behind the Jonestown mass suicide on November 18, 1978, that took more than 900 lives.
Jones founded the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis in 1955 and hailed it as a fully integrated congregation promoting Christian Socialism and openly rejected traditional Christianity by the 1970s and claimed that he was God.
He established 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.
The American government sent a delegation, led by U.S. Representative Leo Ryan, in November 1978. Ryan, along with four others, amid rumors of human rights abuses.
They were eventually be gunned down by Jones’ followers.
Afterward, Jones orchestrated a mass murder-suicide of his followers that took the lives of 918 commune members, 304 of them children, in an act that entailed drinking Flavor Aid laced with cyanide.
DiCaprio is also set to produce the movie with his Appian Way company along with Jennifer Davisson.
The MGM movie is penned by Scott Rosenberg, who is also set to serve as its executive produce alongside Jim Jones.
DiCaprio will next appear in Netflix’s star-studded movie “Don’t Look Up”.
Directed by Adam McKay, the movie is centered around two low-level astronomers who must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet earth.
“Don’t Look Up” also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Matthew Perry, Chris Evans, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Tyler Perry, Jonah Hill, Rob Morgan, Mark Rylance, Ron Perlman, Scott Mescudi, Meryl Street, Himesh Patel, Tomer Sisley, Melanie Lynskey, Gina Gershon, Michael Chiklis, and Paul Guilfoyle.
He also set to star in Martin Scorsese’s "Killers of the Flower Moon" for Apple Originals Films.
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