Raven (HBO) - Miniseries about Jim Jones Cult from producer Vince Gilligan
 

This is certainly interesting. Vince Gilligan doing a miniseries about the Jim Jones cult and mass-suicide in Guyana. Love that Michelle MacLaren is directing. She did some of the best work on Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad Creator Vince Gilligan Developing HBO Miniseries About Jim Jones Cult

Michelle MacLaren to direct.

Raven, a miniseries about the Jim Jones cult, is in the works at HBO, and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is on board to both write and executive produce.

After working with Gilligan on Breaking Bad, director Michelle MacLaren -- who helmed some of that AMC show's most acclaimed episodes -- is re-teaming with Gilligan to direct and executive produce Raven, Deadline reports. MacLaren has also directed episodes of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

Raven will tell the story of Jim Jones and his group of followers, who he goaded into committing mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978.

In addition to MacLaren and Gilligan, actress Octavia Spencer (The Help, Zootopia) is on board to co-produce with Reilly Smith, after securing the rights to Tim Reiterman's non-fiction book, "Raven: The Untold Story of Jim Jones," which provides a journalistic look at the horrific events that transpired in Jonestown from the perspective of a survivor. Spencer has no plans to appear in the series in an acting role.

Raven isn't the only project on Gilligan's plate. Besides executive producing Season 3 of the Breaking Bad spinoff/prequel Better Call Saul, he's also working with Disney on a new Jack and the Beanstalk film.

Re: Raven (HBO) - Miniseries about Jim Jones Cult from producer Vince Gilligan
 

Slightly off-track ... didn't we just have a new Jack and the Beanstalk movie?

Now that that is out of the way, I'm intrigued. Octavia Spencer doesn't thrill me, but the rest sounds good.

Much of it will hinge on the way the story is told. To me, folks like Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Hitler are fascinating -- what is it about them that they can convince people to follow them down these evil and horrific paths? Tell me that story and I'm in. If it has six side-plots about romance among the followers, how they miss their families, the tragic origin story of how three of them got there, and a lingering mystery of the one who is hiding from the authorities -- then I am not interested.

Re: Raven (HBO) - Miniseries about Jim Jones Cult from producer Vince Gilligan
 

Octavia Spencer isn't really involved. She won't appear in the series. She was just smart enough to buy the book rights, which lands her a producer credit. It's like Reese Witherspoon's involvement in Gone Girl or Danny DeVito's contributions to Erin Brockovich.

I might read the book now ahead of the miniseries

Re: Raven (HBO) - Miniseries about Jim Jones Cult from producer Vince Gilligan
 

To be fair, Reese Witherspoon bought Gone Girl to star in, but Fincher sat her down and said she wasn't right for it.

Totally irrelevant here really but it made me like her slightly more :lol: But yeah Octavia Spencer won't be in it, but she'll be nominated for an Emmy regardless.

This sounds interesting to me.

Re: Raven (HBO) - Miniseries about Jim Jones Cult from producer Vince Gilligan
 

I should have been a little clearer on that, sorry.

That's my point ... Why bother to mention it? It's just name dropping. It's a pet peeve when writers and publicists do that. If she was going to be in it, that's fine - I have nothing against her. But attaching an actor's name when he/she is in another capacity that he/she is not known for bugs me.

Re: Raven (HBO) - Miniseries about Jim Jones Cult from producer Vince Gilligan
 

It's a fascinating topic ripe for dramatic exploration.