Lehigh Football Nation

This weekend, HBO premiered the movie Paterno , a fictional representation of the two weeks covering the span of time between Joe Paterno ’s 409th career game and his lung cancer diagnosis. I watched the movie, curious to see how Barry Levinson would portray the events, and how Al Pacino and a litany of really great actors would put the whole thing together. The movie had a Shakespearean quality to it, trying to make an interesting case study of Joe Paterno and an examination of two fateful weeks.  Like many movies, it took actual events, and the writers formed a narrative around it - much like Shakespeare's Julius Caesar wasn't based on the actual conversations between Marcus Brutus and Cassius. Predictably, in their response to the movie , the Paterno family chose to attack the movie’s credibility. "The HBO movie regarding Joe Paterno is a fictionalized portrayal of the tragic events surrounding Jerry Sandusky's crimes. Numerous scenes, events and dialogue...

Spoiler Alert:  I don't know Barry Levinson . Also, I am not close personal friends with Al Pacino . But I have been fascinated by the recent announcement that Levinson will be directing, and Pacino will be starring, in an HBO movie  about Penn State, tentatively called "Happy Valley" . The official logline for the film reads: “After becoming the winningest coach in college football history, Joe Paterno is embroiled in Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, challenging his legacy and forcing him to face questions of institutional failure on behalf of the victims.” I don't know Levinson, or Pacino, and I know there's already three pro writers on this project already whom I also don't know personally (for the record,  Debora Cahn ( Grey's Anatomy ) , John C. Richards ( Nurse Betty ), and David McKenna ( American History X )).  I also know that it's based on the book by Joe Posanski (called Paterno , released shortly after the S...