Al Pacino To Play Joe Paterno In New Biopic

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Little more than a year after the scandal in the Pennsylvania State University football program was revealed, a project is being shopped around Hollywood to tell the story of former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno.

[url="http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/joe-paterno-movie-al-pacino-penn-state-gridiron-scandal/"]Deadline[/url] broke the news, reporting that a film is being developed based on Joe Posnanski's biography "Paterno."[url="http://www.mtv.com/movies/person/48142/personmain.jhtml"] Al Pacino[/url] is attached to play the title character and his manager, Rick Nicita, will act as producer. There's no word yet on whether this will end up being a theatrical film or made for television.



Though Paterno is now known best for covering up the sex scandal that has sentenced former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky to likely a life in prison, "Paterno" will not only tell that side of the story. Posnanski had been writing his biography for a year before the Penn State scandal came into the light, so his tale follows Paterno's rise and fall from glory. Paterno passed away in January due to complications from lung cancer.

Pacino is a great choice to play the man better known as JoePa, and it will be interesting to see how he pulls off such a touchy role. From the way Deadline is describing this project, the biopic doesn't sound like it will shirk from the details involving the scandal. Of course, that will be tempered by information about Paterno's "life before Penn State, his family and the iron grip he held over Penn State football and politics until his downfall." Paterno was dismissed from the Penn State football team in 2011 after news of the Sandusky fiasco broke.

[i]Do you think Pacino is a good choice to play Paterno? Is it too soon to make a movie about this scandal? Tell us in the comments section below or on [url="http://twitter.com/mtvmoviesblog"]Twitter[/url]![/i]



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