In this honest and surprising portrait, Joe Posnanski brings new insight and understanding to one of the most controversial figures in America. The concept of Al Pacino starring as Joe Paterno in a movie has been rumored for nearly five years.The movie was set to be based on Joe Posnanski’s biography of Paterno, but eventually fell apart. The play is a 3 person play with lots of dialogue and he was fantastic in it. Sat up front in the first few rows and hes one hell of an actor in person also. As head coach at Pennsylvania State University over 46 seasons between 1966. Legendary actor Al Pacino, best known for playing Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies and Tony Montoya in Scarface, has signed on to play late Penn State coach Joe Paterno in a planned film. Al Pacino Will Play Penn State Coach Joe Paterno in HBOs Sandusky-Scandal MoviePacino previously played Phil Spector in 2013 and Dr. Hes a great film actor as we know, but my wife and I saw him in a David Mamet play (American Buffalo) in Boston in 1984. At the pinnacle of his career, Joe Paterno was the winningest coach in the history of collegiate football. The 77-year-old actor will be one of the main stars of the upcoming HBO movie. With 409 victories, Paterno is the most victorious coach in NCAA FBS history. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2011. Paterno is the fullest description we will ever have of the man’s character and career. I think Pacino will be great playing Paterno. Al Pacino is set to potray shamed college football coach Joe Paterno in a new project according to a new report. Joseph Vincent Paterno ( Decem January 22, 2012), sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. Back in September, word got out that a Joe Paterno movie was in the making, and that Al Pacino had been cast as the venerated-then-disgraced head coach.
Within three months, Paterno died of lung cancer, a tragic end to a life that was epic, influential, and operatic. School expected to celebrate Joe Pa’s 50th Anniversary of joining school as head coach in 1966, prior to the Temple game. 17 when the late head coach will be honored by Penn State.
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. Joe Paterno's name stirs up a range of emotions and they will be on full display on Sept. The question that remains is what amount of greed, ignorance, and self-aggrandizement can cause someone, or a whole administration for that matter, to turn a blind eye to child molestation that they knew was going on for more than a decade and likely since the 1970s.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. HBO’s ‘Paterno,’ starring Al Pacino as late Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, will debut on the premium cable network this spring, and on Thursday the actor and director Barry Levinson discussed the film and the coach’s legacy at the Television Critics Association meetings in Pasadena, Calif. Of course, it's not Paterno's good deeds that are in question, nor is anyone disputing them. Paterno, the book on which the movie is based leaves this question unanswered and instead chooses to speak largely of Paterno's good deeds. Will the movie attempt to answer the question as to why Joe Paterno chose to turn a blind eye to child abuse? It's hard to say if the family will support the HBO Happy Valley movie, but given that Posnanski's book largely focuses on the good deeds done by Paterno, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine them getting behind the movie. In researching the Happy Valley true story, we learned that Joe Posnanski, author of the book on which the movie is based, had unrestricted access to Coach Paterno, his family, and his papers during the year that the Penn State sex abuse scandal was unfolding. Does the movie have the support of the Paterno family?