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Meet the A-List Actor Who Will Play Joe Paterno in the Upcoming Film About the Coach’s Life

Jan. 18, 2013 7:15am Billy Hallowell

LOS ANGELES (TheBlaze/AP) — The real life drama that rocked Penn State football will be heading, in part, to the big screen. It has been announced that actor Al Pacino will play Joe Paterno in a movie about the late football coach. Paterno gained widespread respect for coaching the Nittany Lions from 1966 until 2011 — a revered career that ended in turmoil.

Producer Edward R. Pressman confirms Brian De Palma will direct “Happy Valley,” the tentative title of the film, based on Joe Posnanski’s best-seller “Paterno.”

Al Pacino Is Set to Play Joe Paterno in Movie About Penn State Football Coachs Life

FILE – In this Dec. 7, 2012 file photo, Al Pacino poses for a portrait, in New York. Pacino will play Joe Paterno in a movie about the late Penn State football coach. Brian De Palma will direct “Happy Valley,” the tentative title of the film, based on Joe Posnanski’s best-seller “Paterno.” (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP, File)

“‘Happy Valley’ reunites the ‘Scarface’ and ‘Carlito’s Way’ team of De Palma and 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,” Pressman said in a statement. No start or release dates were given for the film.

While Pressman said the plot remains “under wraps,” Posnanski’s book followed Paterno’s final years, as the winningest coach in college football history saw his career end in disgrace in 2011 with the sex abuse scandal involving assistant Jerry Sandusky.

A description of the book reads:

Joe Posnanski’s biography of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno follows in the tradition of works by Richard Ben Cramer on Joe DiMaggio and David Maraniss on Vince Lombardi. Having gained unprecedented access to Paterno, as well as the coach’s personal notes and files, Posnanski spent the last two years of Paterno’s life covering the coach, on (and off) the field and through the scandal that ended Paterno’s legendary career.

Joe Posnanski, who in 2012 was named the Best Sportswriter in America by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame, was with Paterno and his family as a horrific national scandal unfolded and Paterno was fired. Within three months, Paterno died of lung cancer, a tragic end to a life that was epic, influential, and operatic.

Paterno is the fullest description we will ever have of the man’s character and career. In this honest and surprising portrait, Joe Posnanski brings new insight and understanding to one of the most controversial figures in America.

It will be intriguing to see how the film balances a man who was admired by so many, but who left his career — and this world — embroiled in scandal.

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Comments (23)

Bua
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 7:16pm
Joe Paterno was an extremely talented leader and molder of athletes who, most unfortunately overstayed his position at Penn State to the extent that he thought and acted like the feeble old man that, in reality, he actually was at well past 80. The man who just reported something foul and disgusting that he was told to others without seeing to it that it was followed up was not the caring, involved guy who led Penn State’s football team to glory while seeing to it that each and every gorilla in his command paid attention to his education. It’s an utter shame that he is now so reviled as witness the above foul remarks. I hope that Al Pacino captures the greatness of the man as well as the agony resulting from his disgrace.

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GuruMeditation
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 5:57pm
I could not care less.

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Exidor
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:50pm
Didn’t he just play Jack Kevorkian and Phil Spector recently?

Odd choices in roles…..

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bage66
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 11:54am
if there’s still time to recast this flick, get Joe Pesci as JoPa and Robert De Niro as Sandusky.

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TickedoffTexan
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 11:04am
I really do not think I could care less!!! I am not going to watch it, and I do not see how this made news?!?!?!?!

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- PilgrimStuckInBizarroWorld
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 11:31am
  This is what is wrong with this world. In a just world his name would never be spoken again.Hollywood keeps making movies about the crappy people of this world and crappy people keep popping up. I will not watch this!
  
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Gonzo
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 9:33am
Can’t wait to miss it.

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- Lee_in_PA
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 12:28pm
  Must to avoid.
  
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jcldwl
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 9:23am
Another Hollywood story? Blaze we don’t give a rat’s patootie about Hollywood.

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SpankDaMonkey
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:48am
.
Al must be hurting for a role. Playing Joe Perv may be Al’s Shark Jump…….

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- VanceUppercut
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 10:31am
  Al jumped the shark about 10 years ago, when he began starring in a long line of straight-to-DVD crapfests. He was a good actor once, but sadly his best days are behind him.
  
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jteagle
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:29am
Maybe we can get a priest to play Sandusky. Call it method acting.

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hauschild
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:14am
These people certainly waste no time.

Remember when even Hollywood had class???

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Gundolier
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:03am
One of the all-time WORST people ever to be allowed to continue to be in the movies. To call him an Actor would be to denigrate the term for all true actors.

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- Eastinfection
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:24am
  Seriously?
  I don’t have an opinion on him as a person but he’s a great actor.
  
  What would the Godfather be without Michael Corleone?
  
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- hauschild
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 9:13am
  Or, Colonel Frank Slade………….Ooooh-Ahhhhhh!!!!
  
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karencole
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:02am
He’s only 72???! He looks horrible!

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Gundolier
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:00am
One of the all-time WORST people ever to be allowed to be in a movie. To call him an Acotr would be to denigrate the term for all true actors.

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Southerner01
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 7:43am
Damn, the way he looks in that first pic, Al should be playing the corpse of Joe Paterno after he died. How much lifetime partying does it take to look that rough?

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Eastinfection
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 7:33am
Funny that Pacino will play Paterno…
.. but Sandusky’s character will be the one going “say Hello to my little friend”.

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ares338
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 7:29am
Wow…Will he look the other way while young boys are abused in the shower?

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- WeKnowTheseTruths
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 7:43am
  Wow did the MSM tell you thats how it all happened. Fact check my friend… fact check. That man that witnessed the abuse and turned his head and walked away was in fact Mike McQuery (a name you never hear mentioned in the scandal). It has been noted continuously that Paterno followed protocol laid forth by the university and the state of Pennsylvania. I’m sure he will only be portrayed the way the rest of the country wants him to be portrayed…a monster. He was the perfect definition of a scapegoat in this scandal. Do your own research, and don’t believe what the “news” (including the blaze), and ESPN tell you.
  
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- grimjack3791
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 9:58am
  We Know These Truths:
  
  I call BS. It is one thing to follow protocol when it comes to one of your coaches having too many parking tickets on campus, and quite another when we’re talking about accusations of baby-rape.
  
  Paterno, o great leader of men that he supposedly was, should have dragged everyone into his office, demanded the truth, and fired everyone who hesistated to answer the questions or who couldn’t keep their story straight. That’s the least he could do if the cops weren’t willing to prosecute on their own.
  
  He didn’t do that, he took the weakling’s way out. He is not worth defending and deserves his fair share of the blame.
  
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