Al Pacino set to play former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno on screen

Mumbai: Al Pacino, reportedly, is set to star in HBO's movie on the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal that took down Penn State's illustrious college football program.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Barry Levinson will direct the film and executive produce it.

Pacino will portray Joe Paterno, the winning coach in college football history, who becomes embroiled in the sexual abuse scandal surrounding his longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

The scandal challenges his legacy and forces him to face questions of institutional failure on behalf of the victims.

Debora Cahn (‘Grey's Anatomy’, ‘The West Wing’), John C. Richards (‘Sahara’, ‘Nurse Betty’) and David McKenna (‘SWAT’, ‘American History X’) will pen the script.

Paterno served as head coach of the Penn State football team from 1966 to 2011, when he was dismissed from the team in the fallout from the Sandusky sex scandal. Sandusky, who served as the assistant coach at Penn State from 1969 to 1999, was arrested and charged with 52 counts of sexual abuse of young boys in late 2011.

The abuse allegedly took place over a 15-year period, from 1994 to 2009. In 2012, he was found guilty of 45 charges of sexual abuse and sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Paterno died in early 2012 of complications from lung cancer, just two months after he was fired from his long-time coaching job.