I love a bit of true crime—actually, a lot of it—and Leonardo DiCaprio is one of my favorite actors. Imagine my surprise once news of MGM’s planned Jim Jones film.
Leonardo DiCaprio To Play Jim Jones
So far, MGM has managed to pick up the screenplay in a hefty seven-figure deal. The lynchpin here is wrapping up the contract talks to have DiCaprio on board as the titular cult leader.
The film will be produced through DiCaprio’s own Appian Way Productions studio. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Venom screenwriter Scott Rosenburg handled the script and will be on board as executive producer.
Casting for other figures in Jones’ story hasn’t been announced but this is an interesting role for Leonardo Dicaprio. For those unfamiliar with the story and who don’t mind a 43-year-old spoiler, Jim Jones was a religious cult leader who formed the Peoples Temple cult in 1955 Indianapolis.
The catch for the group was its Christian socialism approach that actively preached integration during a time of aggressive segregation in the U.S. Jones grew his congregation early on via a revival circuit approach of performing “miracles” via faith healing.
After a failed attempt to take over Reverend Major Jealous Divine’s congregation, a move to California, and exploratory trips to Cuba and Brazil in the early 1960s, he laid the groundwork for Guyana in the early 1970s.
Jones would move the congregation to Guyana in 1977. Already drunk off the power and control being over a congregation gave him, drugs, sex, and paranoia got mixed in and escalated into defections. This eventually led to the Jamestown massacre—which will definitely be the climax of the film.
It will be interesting to see how the film covers Jones in the form of what is tackled and what is dropped. I just hit the major points but there is a lot to the story of this cult that couldn’t be told in a two or three-hour film. Also, DiCaprio’s role as Jones looks good on paper.
At the moment, there is no timeframe for when filming is set to start for Jim Jones. Currently, Leonardo DiCaprio is starring in two upcoming films with the comedy Don’t Look Up having a December 24th release date on Netflix. The film co-stars Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Chris Evans, Meryl Streep, Tyler Perry, Jonas Hill, Ron Perlman, and Kid Cudi.
Killers of the Flower Moon is a crime drama handled by his production studio and is scheduled for a 2022 release.
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