The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Al Pacino is in negotiations to star in a Dr. Kevorkian biopic for HBO that Barry Levinson is directing. The name? “You Don’t Know Jack“, a title that will certainly only conjure up images of the chant at the end of Jellyvision’s great trivia game.
The film will follow the man’s life as he constructs his so-called Mercy Machine and starts offing suffering patients who want it, and is inevitably forced into dealing with the nutty media when they picked up on the story. Kevorkian claims to have assisted in at least 130 suicides, and has become famous for championing that a person has a right to die.
The man went to jail for 8 years back in 1999 but is now out and lecturing around the country, as well as running for Congress last year (and failing).
The title of the film of course suggests that they’re going to cast him in a sympathetic light, which is probably the way to go. Funny, especially considering how TV was his downfall (he was only arrested after willingly sending the now-infamous videos to air on 60 Minutes)