'SNL' Alum Bill Hader Set To Drink the Kool-Aid

Save for his relationship with Ali Wong, Bill Hader has been relatively quiet since wrapping his stellar comedy Barry two years ago. Now, however, the SNL alum is plotting his next series—one strikingly similar to the project Martin Scorsese tried to launch in the premiere of Seth Rogen’s The Studio, only to see it hilariously fall victim to studio politics.

Hader appears to be going even darker than Barry with his new endeavor: a television series based on Reverend Jim Jones, the cult leader behind the infamous mass suicide at Jonestown. Jones convinced his followers to drink poison-laced Flavor Aid in the Guyanese jungle, resulting in the deaths of 918 people, including over 300 children.

What began as a progressive, socialist utopia in 1950s Indiana eventually relocated to Guyana, where members endured grueling labor, strict punishments, and constant surveillance under Jones’s increasingly authoritarian rule. When Congressman Leo Ryan visited the commune and attempted to leave with several defectors, Jones ordered his gunmen to ambush the group, killing Ryan, three journalists, and a fleeing member.

Shortly after, Jones initiated what he called “revolutionary suicide,” coercing more than 900 followers into drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid.

The Jonestown massacre became a chilling symbol of the dangers of cults and unchecked devotion. And yet, decades later, the same cult-like thinking still echoes through our political landscape. We have never learned to stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

Hader, who is developing the project with Daniel Zelman (Damages, Bloodline), is also expected to star.

via Deadline