Al Pacino will star in a biopic about Dr Jack Kevorkian, the right-to-die doctor who made headlines around the world during his near-20 year campaign to assist patients determined to commit suicide. And before you complain that this is a TV rather than a cinema story, allow us to assure you that it's not TV; it's HBO.
The film's set to be directed by Barry Levinson and will tell the story of Dr Kevorkian's growing conviction that dying patients should be allowed to commit suicide, and the construction of his "Mercy Machine". He claims to have helped over a hundred patients commit suicide during the 1990s, but was convicted in 1999 of second-degree murder after taping the assisted suicide of one of his patients and allowing it to be broadcast on TV. He served eight years in prison.
Adam Mazer, who wrote Chris Cooper / Ryan Phillippe spy thriller Breach, is writing the script, based on Harry Wylie and Neal Nicol's book Between the Dying and the Dead about Kevorkian. It's not yet clear is Kevorkian will be involved, or when shooting will begin, but this could be one to keep an eye on, TV or no.