Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star as Jonestown cult leader Jim Jones in the upcoming feature film biopic “Jim Jones,” which Oscar-winner DiCaprio will also produce.
An MGM representative confirmed the news to IndieWire that DiCaprio is in final negotiations to play the 1970s cult guru, who orchestrated the mass suicide that took place on November 18, 1978.
Altogether, a total of 909 people died at the settlement, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and at a Temple-run building in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city.MGM scooped up rights to the film, which was penned by Scott Rosenberg, a writer on the first “Venom” film from 2018, as well as “Jumanji: Next Level.” Deadline has reported a seven-figure deal for the acquisition.
Rosenberg is also set to executive-produce “Jim Jones.”An Oscar winner for Best Actor for “The Revenant,” DiCaprio will produce “Jim Jones” for his Appian Way company alongside president of production Jennifer Davisson.
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