Bill Hader Working on HBO Show About Cult Leader Jim Jones and Jonestown

Bill Hader will soon have HBO audiences drinking the Kool-Aid.

The comedian, screenwriter, and actor is soon to return to HBO with a new series centered around Reverend Jim Jones, who famously started a religious cult and later engineered a highly publicized mass-murder-suicide event in 1978.

Hader is best-known for his comic work, especially on Saturday Night Live, and for writing, directing, producing and starring in HBO’s comedy-drama Barry, which ran for four seasons from 2018 to 2023.

Barry was centered around a hitman who traveled to Los Angeles to kill a target and discovered his love for acting, and also starred Henry Winkler, Sarah Goldberg, and Stephen Root. It received 16 nominations at the Emmys over the course of its run.

The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, a.k.a. Jonestown, became an internationally infamous community in November 1978 when exceptionally charismatic cult leader Jim Jones convinced a large group of people to move from the United States to Guyana by promising residents they could live in a utopian settlement. Later on, he caused the deaths of over 900 Jonestown residents by convincing or forcing them to drink cyanide-laced fruit punch.

Hader is set to work on the series with Daniel Zelman, who is best known for his work on the early-00s FX drama Damages. Hader could potentially star in the series as well, although a decision has not yet been made.