It’s looking like Oscar award-winner, Leonardo DiCaprio is in final talks to play cult leader, Jim Jones in a new dramatic movie simply known as Jim Jones, according to Deadline.
The script of the movie was written by Scott Rosenberg, who co-wrote the screenplay for Venom, with the Jim Jones movie being picked up by MGM. Jennifer Davisson and DiCaprio will produce the film through the actor’s production company, Appian Way with Rosenburg executive producing the movie. DiCaprio has played a lot of real-life figures throughout his life as an actor so it’s not surprising the part of Jim Jones is up next for him. The other real-life figures DiCaprio has played in the past include Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, Frank Abagnale Jr in Catch Me If You Can, Howard Hughes in The Aviator and J Edgar Hoover in J Edgar.
For anyone unfamiliar with Jim Jones, he founded the Peoples Temple in 1955, which promoted Christian Socialism in a fully integrated congregation. Jones would later reject traditional Christianity in the 1970s while claiming to be God. in 1978, Four years after building his commune in Guyana, he told his followers to drink Flavor Aid which was laced with cyanide.
Jim Jones is known more infamously as he was responsible for the largest mass death in US history in an event known as the Jonestown massacre. The event took place on November 18th, 1978 which resulted in 909 deaths which includes the lives of 304 children. The massacre has been adapted into a number of films, TV series and documentaries. It was most recently referenced in an episode of American Horror Story.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Dicaprio in an acting role on the big screen, his last role was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. DiCaprio will make his return alongside a star-studded cast in Don’t Look Up which is set to stream on Netflix this Christmas Eve.
The Jim Jones role isn’t the only thing DiCaprio has been in the news about this week as a six-second out-of-context clip has gone viral from Saturday’s LACMA Art+Film Gala. In the video, DiCaprio can be seen chatting up Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend, Lauren Sánchez who is seemingly star-struck by the Titanic actor. Jeff Bezos was silently standing in the clip, in reaction to the viral video, the billionaire jokingly threatened the actor in a tweet.
