InternationalArts brief: Al Pacino to play Jack Kevorkian on HBO
Published: Friday May 29, 2009
Al Pacino. . Wikipedia
Al Pacino will star in an HBO made-for-cable movie about right-to-die champion Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Variety reported on May 26. The movie will be directed by Barry Levinson.
The movie will revolve around Dr. Kevorkian's construction of his "Mercy Machine," his first assisted suicide in the early 1990s, and the resulting media frenzy.
Dr. Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 as a result of his involvement in an assisted suicide that was videotaped and later shown on TV. He was released from prison in 2007.
The movie is based on a manuscript for a book about Dr. Kevorkian, "Between the Dying and the Dead," written by Harry Wylie and Neal Nicol, longtime friends and associates of Dr. Kevorkian's. According to Variety, it is not yet known whether Dr. Kevorkian himself will be involved in the production of the movie.
Mr. Jones also just completed work on a feature-length domentary on Dr. Kevorkian's unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives last year. He was running as an independent against Republican Joe Knollenberg, a passionate advocate of Armenian-American interests who at the time was co-chair of the Armenian Caucus in the House.
