Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Chloë Grace Moretz to Star in Film About Jim Jones and the People’s Temple

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Chloë Grace Moretz are set to star in an upcoming film about cult leader Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. In White Night, Gordon-Levitt will play Jones, while Mortez will portray Deborah Layton, one of Jones’ former disciples who defected. She later testified about her experience as a member of the People’s Temple before Congress.

In response to Layton’s testimony, US Representative Leo Ryan led a delegation Jonestown, the cult’s jungle commune in Guyana. While there, Ryan, a news crew, and a Jonestown defector were assassinated by Jones’ followers. Soon after, Jones orchestrated a mass murder-suicide by having the commune’s 918 members drink Flavor Aid laced with cyanide.

White Night is based off of Layton’s memoir, Seductive Poison. Anne Sewitsky (A Very British Scandal) has been hired to helm the project, working off of a screenplay written by William Wheeler (The Ghost in the Shell).

White Night is not to be confused with another Jim Jones-related project in development. Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star in a MGM-produced biopic written by Scott Rosenberg (Venom).

Gordon-Levitt will next be seen in Showtime’s Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, where he plays Uber founder Travis Kalanick. Moretz recently starred in the Hulu film Mother/Android.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Chloë Grace Moretz to Star in Film About Jim Jones and the People’s Temple
Alex Young

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