See Al Pacino Play Former Penn State Football Coach in Trailer for HBO's PATERNO
Al Pacino takes on the challenging role of Penn State's former head football coach Joe Paterno in HBO Films’ Paterno. The movie focuses on Paterno during the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. Just after becoming the winningest coach in college football history, his legacy is challenged and he is forced to face questions of institutional failure in regard to the victims.
Pacino returns to HBO (You Don’t Know Jack; Phil Spector) to star in the title role in the movie that will debut this spring. Paterno will be Pacino’s third HBO collaboration with director Barry Levinson, having starred in You Don’t Know Jack. Levinson will direct Paterno which is written by Debora Cahn and John C. Richards. Levinson describes the film as a movie that focuses on the late coaches most troubling time:
“’Paterno’ is not a sprawling piece that spans years,” said Levinson. “It unfolds largely over a two-week period, when we watch the events play out. I’m not following an agenda or trying to tell the audience to take a certain side in regards to Coach Paterno. The film lays out the elements of the story and leaves you to make your own judgment. There are times when you may feel one way, and times when you may feel a totally different way, and I think that’s what makes the piece so compelling.
“Joe Paterno was known as an honorable man, an educator, a humanitarian – so trying to make sense out of what happened is, for me, the most fascinating aspect of the story,” he adds. “What did he understand? What did he not understand?”
Riley Keough stars as Sara Ganim, the 23-year-old journalist who first reported on the Sandusky case for The Patriot-News, a daily newspaper serving the Harrisburg, Pa. metropolitan area; She is joined by Kathy Baker, Greg Grunberg, Larry Mitchell and Annie Parisse.
Paterno will hit HBO this spring.