Posted on 11/13/2021 4:41:28 PM PST by Drew68
Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio is in final talks to play religious cult leader Jim Jones in MGM’s upcoming feature written by Scott Rosenberg, Variety has confirmed.
Known as the leader of the Peoples Temple religious group, Jones was behind the November 1978 mass suicide at his Jonestown settlement that took more than 900 lives. Jones and his inner circle orchestrated the massacre at the jungle commune in Guyana, with the followers directed to drink cyanide-adulterated punch.
MGM secured a deal for the feature project in a preemptive situation, with DiCaprio also producing the project alongside Jennifer Davisson for their Appian Way production company. Rosenberg (“Venom,” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and “Jumanji: The Next Level”) is also on board as an executive producer. Rosenberg is represented by WME.
ounded in 2001 by DiCaprio, Appian Way Productions produced Alejandro Iñárritu’s three-time Academy Award-winner “The Revenant,” Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-nominated “The Wolf of Wall Street,” the Academy Award-nominated “The Aviator” and “Shutter Island” (all starring DiCaprio), as well as the Peabody Award-winning documentary “Sea of Shadows,” Scott Cooper’s “Out of the Furnace” and George Clooney’s “The Ides of March,” among others. Appian currently is in production on Apple’s “Shining Girls,” starring Elizabeth Moss. Davisson serves as president of production.
DiCaprio next stars opposite Jennifer Lawrence in Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” for Netflix and in Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” for Apple Originals Films. Over the course of his prolific career, the actor has played a host of historical figures, including infamous con man Frank Abagnale in “Catch Me If You Can,” Howard Hughes in “The Aviator” and frontiersman Hugh Glass in “The Revenant,” for which he earned the best actor Oscar in 2016 (he’s been nominated a total of seven times). DiCaprio is repped by LBI Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellman.
Deadline was first to report news of DiCaprio’s involvement in the project.
Well, he'll probably do a good job at it even if like Titanic, we all know how it ends. Despite all of his enviro flakiness, he's actually grown into a pretty solid actor.
Still though, the role of Jim Jones will always belong to Powers Boothe who played him in the 1980 miniseries, a role that established Boothe's career.
Nonetheless, looking forward to streaming it once it comes to TV. Curious however, if Hollywood will gloss over all of Jones' liberalism that made him quite respected among the Bay Area's Democrat political leaders.
Jones was a socialist but sure this will be more about bashing Christians.
BORING
Great actor. He’s gonna kill osage indians next on screen.
Will they show his friendship with Harvey Milk?
Can’t wait for the rewrite of history.
Sounds like a timely movie given this cultic age
Hm. Wondering if they’ll feature Skynd’s “Jim Jones” somewhere in the soundtrack. Probably not. Her music video did a surprisingly good job honoring those victims.
If you look for it, her videos are usually very graphic. It’s why I’m not sharing the link or URL. She’s not likely to find favor among most here.
I read an article not long ago about Jonestown, insisting that it was a false flag by the FBI. I wasn’t born yet, but he made the point of, “Because ALL of those people drank the FlavorAid of their own free will. [Sarc]”
He neglected to mention how many had been shot (some while fleeing, some not) or were held at gunpoint until they drank. Usually the simplest explanation is the correct i.e.: Jones was a crazy, power-hungry and sexually disturbed SOB who abused congregants of both sexes, abused drugs and alcohol, brainwashed where he could and intimidated or coerced where he couldn’t. The FBI or some other alphabet agency didn’t NEED to get involved. That was already a tempest of insanity.
I disagree, it will blame whitey for hurting colored folks.
Very much like today's "Just get the 'jab'", wouldn't you say?
Yes. The racial dynamic, it seems to me, would be challenging to cover in a way which does not offend some or all of the audience. It’s an either an evil white guy who victimized blacks, or gullible black people making poor decisions.
Powers Booth was da man
Jones' followers didn't even drink Kool Aid. They drank grape Flavor Aid, a cheap knockoff.
Yep the Powers Booths portrayal was fascinating.
If anyone hasn’t seen it check it out.
I have a joke about Jim Jones but the punchline is too long.
Hellywood has really run out of material - they’ve been scratching the bottom for some time now.
Yep.
On a related note, it's been a long time since I've seen images of Jonestown. This thread had me going down that rabbit hole.
They're really horrifying.
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