In a recent article from Deadline New York, it’s been revealed that ICM Partners will be developing a package next week for a movie about the former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. While this would normally be something easily snatched up, it’s almost priceless when Al Pacino has been slated to star.
The package will be centered around Joe Posnanski’s New York Time’s bestseller Paterno, a book that has been flying off the shelves over the past few weeks. So much faith has been put into this potential project that Pacino’s own manager, Rick Nicita, is in talks as producer. The project is still in it’s infancy, which is completely understandable considering audiences may not be ready to come face to face with the Sandusky scandal in its entirety.
While the narrative could easily zero in on the downfall of the Penn State icon, the project instead hopes to mirror Ponanski’s work and focus on the man’s personal life before he arrives at the helm of an entire University. Obviously, the fateful exile of the man once known as ‘JoePa’ will be covered in full detail, but not what the film solely bases itself around.
This will not be the first football based film Al Pacino has worked on, of course. The Oliver Stone directed Any Given Sunday gave us a great performance involving an important man under athlete-oriented pressure. Nor will this be the first controversial role Pacino has taken based on an actual person; his portrayal of Jack Kavorkian in the HBO film You Don’t Know Jack is almost flawless.
Whether or not the film will be a feature film, cable release or mini-series has yet to be revealed. With the amount of twists, turns and downright tragedy invovlved with all concerning parties, whatever option is chosen will be well worth waiting for.
