Throughout the history of the world, many religious sects have been formed (Christianity started that way). Still, the vast majority of them are content with love for one another and a little financial support… They might even convince you that it’s worth persuading others to join because there are many good things in store for them too…

The Church of the Peoples, founded by Jim Jones, started as a cult of this kind, coming to a rough and sad end. Their story is now being made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jones, with a script by Scott Rosenberg, who also wrote the Jumanji movies. And what exactly will the film be about?

Jim Jones didn’t feel very comfortable in America during the McCarthyite communist persecutions because he held communist views. That was one of the reasons why he turned to religion, first as a Methodist minister and then as the founder of the sect I mentioned earlier. Soon afterwards, Jones moved from Indiana to California and quickly became famous for his kindness, anti-racism speeches, and efforts for economic equality.

In 1975, he received the Most Outstanding American Churchman Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award two years later. In the same year, he and his followers moved to the jungles of Guyana because he had become addicted to drugs and had a rather harsh vision of the end of the world, which he saw as an imminent nuclear catastrophe (against which he had spoken out repeatedly since the early 1960s).

By this time, his followers’ camp had grown to over 1000 people, and as welcoming as they were to people, they were hostile to them if they wanted to leave the community (or more precisely, the ‘town’ of Jonestown in the middle of the jungle). U.S. Congressman Leo J. Ryan, accompanied by some journalists, visited the place shortly after its founding. Although everything seemed fine and dandy at first, about a dozen people approached them to help them escape. At first, the Joneses were reluctant to go along with this, but they persuaded some of them to leave with the delegation. Those leaving were already at the airport when a truckload of shooters followed them out of town and slaughtered them.

The cult leaders had acquired a considerable quantity of cellular respiratory paralysis poisons and sedatives months earlier because they wanted to commit mass suicide, and Jim Jones saw the time to do so after the massacre of the delegation, knowing full well that there was no more to be done after this incident. So 900 people voluntarily poisoned themselves (with the “help” of the children’s parents), but of course, under the supervision of armed men. After the worshippers had killed themselves, the leaders drank the poison too, so before long, 900 people were lying dead in the town of Jonestown. Only a few people survived the event, and only because they managed to hide…

So it’s undoubtedly going to be a fascinating story, and we hope they make the most of it. Leonardo Dicaprio is producing the project as well as starring the titular role.

Forrás: Deadline