Leonardo DiCaprio to play cult leader Jim Jones in new film

Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Leonardo DiCaprio will play cult leader Jim Jones in an upcoming film.

Entertainment Weekly reported Monday that DiCaprio, 46, will star in the biopic Jim Jones.

The new film will explore how Jones orchestrated the Jonestown mass suicide that caused over 900 deaths in November 1978.

Jones founded the Peoples Temple religious organization in Indianapolis in 1955 and constructed Jonestown in Guyana in 1974. When U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his delegation arrived to investigate Jonestown in 1978, they were killed by Jones' followers.

Following the killings, Jones ordered a mass murder-suicide among his followers by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid.

Deadline confirmed DiCaprio's casting and said MGM has secured a deal for the film. Venom writer Scott Rosenberg wrote the script and will executive produce with DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson.

DiCaprio will also star in the Netflix film Don't Look Up and Martin Scorsese's new movie Killers of the Flower Moon.