Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Jonestown cult leader Jim Jones in new film

Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play cult leader Jim Jones in “White Night,” a psychological thriller, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Jones was the leader of the infamous People’s Temple cult that established “Jonestown” in Guyana. On Nov. 18, 1978, Jones commanded his followers to drink poison and more than 900 people died in one of the largest mass murder-suicides in history, according to Brittanica.

Chloë Grace Moretz will play Deborah Layton, who was a member of Jones’ inner circle but escaped the People’s Temple cult in 1978, according to Entertainment Weekly.

FilmNation Entertainment will finance “White Night” and produce it with Archer Gray, according to Variety. It will be directed by Anne Sewitsky and is based on Layton’s best-selling memoir, the website reported.

William Wheeler wrote the script and FilmNation Entertainment will finance the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Debbie Layton’s ‘Seductive Poison’ was the first book Anne Carey and I optioned at Archer Gray, and it formed the foundation of our mission to help give voice to the stories it was time to hear,” Archer Gray CEO Amy Nauiokas said in a statement. “Debbie’s incredible journey with the People’s Temple deserves an audience across generations. It should serve as a warning about the power a certain type of charismatic leader can have and the very real lessons to be learned from our history.”

Gordon-Levitt, 40, is going to star as Uber founder Travis Kalanick in the Showtime series “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber” and will be featured as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Robert Zemeckis’s live-action adaptation of “Pinocchio,” Variety reported. He has also had roles in “500 Days of Summer,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” according to the website.

Moretz, 24, most recently starred in the science-fiction thriller “Mother/Android,” which debuted on Hulu in December, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Filming for “White Night” is scheduled to begin in the spring, the website reported.

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Photos: Joseph Gordon-Levitt through the years Here are some memorable photos of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt through the years. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

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