Joe Posnanski was in the middle of writing a biography of Joe Paterno, the man synonymous with Penn State football (settled in an area of Pennsylvania known as Happy Valley) when the Jerry Sandusky scandal exploded last November, but they include fresh details about Paterno's state of mind during that chaotic period.
Now comes word that Al Pacino may play the man called JoePa by most students at Happy Valley in a new movie based on Posnanski's recent book, Paterno, which detailed the last two years of the coach's life. The movie will be reportedly produced by Rick Nicita, Pacino's manager.
Sandusky is revealed to be a pedophile whom a graduate assistant witnessed raping a boy in the locker room showers and it comes out that Paterno was told and help hide the scandal and never called the police, Paterno was immediately fired. He died shortly after.
Pacino previously portrayed a memorable head football coach in the Oliver Stone-directed Any Given Sunday as well as Jack Kevorkian in the HBO film You Don't Know Jack.
Of course, a deal needs to be made, a script written and a director secured before this actually happens, but it would be interesting to see how Pacino could transform himself to portray such a selfrighteous man that put the importance of the football program over the safety of children.
Source: Deadline
