It’s looking like another planned feature film based on the horrifying “Jonestown Massacre” is entering development.Varietyreports that filmmakerSally El Hosaini(The Swimmers) is set to direct a movie about Jim Jones and the incident that left more than 900 people dead in Jonestown in 1978. The Welsh-Egyption filmmaker says that the story as most people know it is “misunderstood” and hopes to shed some new light on the massacre. She has also acquired the life rights from Stephan Jones, Jim Jones' son, to use for the film, which has been dubbedJones.
Speaking to the outlet, El Hosaini said, “It’s a very misunderstood chapter in American history. People labelJim Jonesas a Charles Manson type of character from that era, but if the history had stopped in 1976/7, before the mass murder-suicide in 1978, he would be remembered like Martin Luther King, Jr. in that he was anti-racist, pro-LGBT, super progressive and an atheist."
“A lot of educated, clever, progressive people signed up to the People’s Temple, and then it all went wrong. It’s a film about narcissism, fake news, if you are only fed one narrative, what it can do to you, the ability of power to corrupt. It’s ultimately aShakespearean family drama.”
According to the filmmakers, she has also been given writing grants to assist with the production, which includes one from the San Francisco area. She says that the movie is a “Bay Area story because that’s where they are from and where a lot of survivors still live.”
No cast members have yet been announced forJones.
Related:Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Play Jim Jones in Jonestown Massacre Movie White Night
There Are Multiple Jim Jones Projects in the Works
There might be a handful of different Jim Jones movies coming out around the same time with different ones in the works. Due in part to the true crime craze that has been dominating pop culture in recent years, there have been multiple movies based on Jim Jones that have been announced since just last year. In November 2021, it was reported thatLeonardo DiCaprio was working on a film calledJim Jonesthat would see him playing the infamous cult leader as well as producing. Scott Rosenberg (Venom) was also said to be working on the script. The current status of that project is unclear with no major updates since.
Meanwhile, another report in February of this year suggested that Joseph Gordon-Levitt had been cast to play Jones in a movie calledWhite Nightwhich would also star Chloe Grace Moretz as Jonestown massacre survivor Deborah Layton. William Wheeler (The Ghost in the Shell) penned the script for that planned movie while Anne Sewitsky (A Very British Scandal) was set to direct. It is based on the memoirSeductive Poison, which Layton wrote about her experiences with Jones. As withJim Jones, there’s no release date set forWhite Night, and it remains unclear when either of these movies will start production.
