Vince Gilligan Is Making A HBO Show About Cult Leader Jim Jones And The Jonestown Massacre

This post discusses suicide.

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Vince Gilligan, creator of such disturbing and excellent television as Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is working with HBO on a series about infamous cult leader Jim Jones and his group, the Peoples Temple, called Raven.

If Jones and the Peoples Temple sounds vaguely familiar to you, that’s probably because in 1978 Jones executed the largest mass murder/mass suicide in America’s history, by encouraging his 909 followers to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid at their base, ‘Jonestown’ (and recording audio of the event). There have been numerous documentaries about the terrible and puzzling events at Jonestown, most notably Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple.

Jim Jones was a fascinating figure and the moral complexity of the story — particularly how the cult’s initial intention was to create a socialist utopia which celebrated racial equality and eschewed the aggression of racial-intolerant America — makes it perfect fodder for Vince Gilligan’s type of television.

Michelle MacLaren, who has directed episodes of both Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, will also join Raven. So many difficult men, so little time.