Al Pacino has played gangsters, godfather's, bank robbers, cops and a blind man throughout his illustrious acting career. Time to add another role to the resume.
According to reports from Deadline.com, Pacino will star as disgraced Penn State football coach Joe Paterno in a new film, reteaming with his "Scarface" director Brian De Palma, who will helm the film. Deadline says that film is currently title "Happy Valley", but that could change as the development stages move on in production. The film will detail the story of Paterno as well as the scandal that ended his tenure as coach at Penn State.
The whole scandal came to light when former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused of molesting children over many years at the school. It was revealed that Paterno and others at Penn State oversaw this behavior, but did not do enough to stop it.
The film is being adapted from the bestselling book Paterno by Joe Posnanski and is being looked over by "Wall Street" producer Edward R. Pressman
According to Deadline, Pacino was attached to the film in the fall after the book about Paterno was optioned. A confirmation from Pressman read: "Happy Valley reunites the Scarface and Carlito's Way team of De Palma & Pacino for the third time and I can't think of a better duo to tell this story of a complex, intensely righteous man who was brought down by his own tragic flaw," said Pressman in confirming the deal to Deadline.
Paterno died soon after all the allegations came out and he was not alive to see Sandusky's trial. It was revealed that someone on the staff told Paterno about the situation, but all he did was pass along the information to his higher ups and did not call the police.
After a lengthy investigation, the school dismissed Paterno after a record amount of years as coach and the football program was hit with numerous sanctions from the NCAA. The organization stripped Paterno of his wins that went back to the coverup, while Sandusky will likely be in prison for the rest of his life.
Pacino has played real-life figures in the past, including in the film "Serpico" as well as the recent HBO film "You Don't Know Jack". De Palma's last film was "Passion", starring McAdams and Noomi Rapace. According to Deadline, "De Palma is repped by ICM, Pacino by CAA and Nicita, McKenna by Paradigm and Mosaic."
According to Yahoo, "the film will proceed once a screenwriter is hired to adapt Posnanski's book. David McKenna ("American History X," "Blow") has been approached. Release date and distribution information is as yet unknown."
Pacino has also starred in a film that depicted football, playing a head coach in "Any Given Sunday" for director Oliver Stone that took a controversial look at professional football. This will be the third time that Pacino and De Palma will be working on a feature film, with "Scarface" and "Carlito's Way" coming in the past.
