Vera Farmiga has stepped far outside her Conjuring universe for her next role. The actor, best known for playing paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren opposite Patrick Wilson, is now portraying a real-life UFO cult leader in the upcoming crime thriller The Leader.
According to a report by People, a first-look image of Farmiga as Bonnie Nettles was released alongside details about the film. Nettles co-founded the Heaven's Gate cult alongside Marshall Applewhite, played in the film by Tim Blake Nelson. The cult's beliefs combined Christian theology with extraterrestrial ideology, and ultimately led to the largest mass suicide event in United States history.
The movie was written and directed by Michael Gallagher. In real life, Nettles and Applewhite went by the names Ti and Do. Nettles died of melanoma in 1985, twelve years before the cult's ritual mass suicide took place in 1997. That event was triggered by the belief that members would become immortal extraterrestrials as the Hale-Bopp comet passed over Earth. Thirty-nine people died.
Farmiga told People that her interest in the project grew from watching HBO's 2020 miniseries Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults. That led her to seek out roles connected to the cult's history, and eventually put her in contact with Gallagher.
The Leader features a large ensemble cast including Jim Parsons, Grace Caroline Currey, Simon Rex, Kaitlyn Kemp, J.B. Yowell, Don McManus, William Mapother, Matthew Glave, Geoffrey Arend, and others.
The film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival on June 5, 2026. Early reviews praised the film's unsettling portrayal of the cult's origins and Farmiga's performance as Nettles drew particular attention from critics.
