Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Jim Jones in a biopic of the notorious cult leader who set up Jonestown, a huge South American commune.
From Robin Hood to Alexander the Great, every so often we see competing projects in Hollywood as different studios race to get their take on a definitive character to the screen. FilmNation has announced that it’s financing a biopic of the Jonestown massacre, a 1974 mass suicide invoked by cult leader, Jim Jones. The project, which is set to shoot this spring joins MGM’s planned take in the same events, already in development with Leonardo DiCaprio attached.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, DiCaprio’s co-star in 2010’s Inception, is set to play Jones in FilmNation’s take on one of the worst mass murder/suicides in recorded history. The actor, who has been doing some sterling work on the smaller screen of late, will be joined by another former co-star, Chloe Grace Moretz. The duo played siblings in 2009’s (500) Days of Summer but will now take on a rather different dynamic, with Gordon-Levitt as cult leader Jones, whilst Grace Moretz will play Debbie Layton, one of the few indoctrinated members of Jones’ cult to break free of his control.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Swedish filmmaker Anne Sewitsky, who helmed A Very British Scandal, will be directing. No other casting details have been announced yet, but with plans to get the production in motion, we’re certainly curious to see the impact this has upon DiCaprio’s rival project. We’ll let you know more as we hear it.
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