Leonardo DiCaprio in Final Talks to Star in and Produce MGM's JIM JONES Movie

Academy Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio is in final talks to star in and produce MGM's "Jim Jones", a movie about the 1970s religious cult leader who was behind the Jonestown mass suicide on November 18, 1978 that took more than 900 lives, including 304 children.

DiCaprio will star as Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple religious group who constructed Jonestown in Guyana in 1974 and spurred a following to live with him there as he touted a socialist paradise free from U.S. government oppression.

Amid rumors of human rights abuses, the American government sent a delegation led by U.S. Representative Leo Ryan in November 1978. Ryan, along with four others, would eventually be gunned down by Jones' followers. Following the shooting, Jones orchestrated the massacre at the jungle commune in Guyana, in an act that entailed drinking Flavor Aid laced with cyanide.

Scott Rosenberg ("Venom") penned the screenplay, which the studio acquired in a seven figure deal. DiCaprio will produce for his Appian Way company alongside Jennifer Davisson. Rosenberg is also on board as an executive producer.

The actor can next be seen in Adam McKay's "Don't Look Up" and Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon".

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