Entertainment
UPDATE: Joe Paterno Film Will be Shown on Saturday, April 7
HBO releases a new trailer for the controversial original movie starring Al Pacino.
The long-anticipated movie about the life of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno now has an official release date. The HBO original (starring the equally legendary Al Pacino) will air on Saturday night, April 7. Kathy Baker and Greg Gunberg are cast in the roles of Sue and Scott Paterno.
The movie, as previously announced, will take the Jerry Sandusky scandal head-on, a fact that has upset some longtime Penn State supporters, who feel the movie should focus more on Paterno’s career leading up to the scandal.
Director Barry Levinson (who also directed the classic Diner) told reporters recently that from his point of view, “the film has to deal with the complexity of it all, rather than say he did this or he didn’t do that… The questioning of it is part of the fabric of the piece. It truly is a tragedy.”
Here’s the latest trailer for the movie:
Below is our original story, published on January 15:
Reports have surfaced recently confirming that HBO will release a film centered on the life of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno this spring. The most conclusive evidence came from HBO’s official Twitter account:
Al Pacino is Joe Paterno in #PaternoHBO. Premieres Spring 2018 on #HBO. pic.twitter.com/AhyjMgmoTC
— HBO (@HBO) January 11, 2018
The film has supposedly been in the works for quite some time, with rumors circulating on whether the Jerry Sandusky scandal would be a part of the story.
Now it seems clear that the movie — which will star Al Pacino as the coach and be directed by Barry Levinson — will include in it’s plot the scandal that tarnished Paterno’s reputation.
According to a page on IMDB, which refers to the movie as “Happy Valley,” the film “centers on Joe Paterno, who, after becoming the winningest coach in college football history, is embroiled in Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, challenging his legacy and forcing him to face questions of institutional failure regarding the victims.”
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