Breaking Bad Duo Working on Jonestown Series for HBO

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NEW YORK: Vince Gilligan and Michelle MacLaren, the pair behind Breaking Bad, are working with Octavia Spencer on a limited series for HBO about cult leader Jim Jones.

The series, Raven, is based on Tim Reiterman’s book Raven: The Untold Story of Jim Jones and His People. Gilligan will write and executive produce, while MacLaren serves as director and executive producer. Spencer (The Help, Zootopia) is on board to co-produce with Reilly Smith, after securing the rights to Reiterman’s nonfiction book.

The story follows how the pastor Jim Jones convinced 918 people to take their own lives in a mass murder-suicide in a self-created village in the middle of the Guyana jungle in 1978.