Leonardo DiCaprio is in final talks to play religious cult leader Jim Jones in an upcoming MGM film, Varietyreports. DiCaprio will also serve as a producer, along with Jennifer Davisson, under their Appian Way banner.
Scott Rosenberg has been tapped to pen the script. His previous writing credits include 2018’s Venom, as well as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level.
According to Deadline, Jones founded the organization known as the Peoples Temple in 1955, established under the guise of a congregation promoting Christian Socialism. He, along with several close affiliates, orchestrated a mass murder-suicide in 1978 in which his followers drank a beverage laced with cyanide, killing over 900 members.
Jones’ body was found dead that same year from a gunshot wound to his head. A autopsy later confirmed that his death was a suicide.
DiCaprio is part of a star-studded cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Timothée Chalamet, and Meryl Streep in Netflix’s Don’t Look Up. The film is written and directed by Adam McKay. The Oscar-winner is also set to star Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, and Brendan Fraser.
