Al Pacino is talking with HBO about starring in a biopic about assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

The Oscar- and Emmy-winning actor will take on the role of “Dr. Death” in a telefilm for the pay-cable channel, the showbiz trade papers report. The movie will focus on Kevorkian’s invention of the “mercy machine” that allows for assisted suicide, his rise to prominence in the media and the many legal battles he was involved in before being convicted of second-degree murder in 1999.

Kevorkian was charged after allowing 60 Minutes to air a video of him helping a man with advanced ALS end his life. He served eight years of a 10- to 25-year sentence before being paroled for good behavior in 2007.

Barry Levinson (What Just Happened, Diner) is set to direct the film from a script by Adam Mazer (Breach). Levinson, who executive produced Oz for HBO, is also exec producing the movie with Steven L. Jones, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Glenn Rigberg.
The movie would be Pacino’s second time working with HBO. He won an Emmy in 2004 for playing Roy Cohn in the channel’s adaptation of Angels in America.

Pacino most recently starred in Righteous Kill; his other recent credits include Ocean’s Thirteen, 88 Minutes and a 2004 adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.

Source: Zap2It