Al Pacino seems to be on a bit of a binge of signing up for film at the moment, as in the last month or so he’s become attached to Gotti: Three Generations and Imagine, and now The Humbling, which he’s been involved with since 2009 is moving forward, with Barry Levinson at the helm.
Pacino and Levinson seem to have formed a strong partnership, as they made You Don’t Know Jack together, will team again for Gotti: Three Generations and now want to make The Humbling. While earlier this year it seemed the Gotti biopic would start shooting fairly quickly, when director Nick Cassavetes left and was replaced by Levinson, a page one rewrite was ordered, with the director and James Toback working over Leo Rossi’s original script.
That means it’ll be a bit of time before the film goes in front of the camera, so Deadline reports Barry and Al will fill the time by making The Humbling, based on Philip Roth’s novel. The book is about an aging stage actor who’s seen as increasingly irrelevant, but who tries to bring new meaning to his life by getting involved with a younger woman. In fact it was Pacino himself who bought the screen rights to the novel, something he’s never done before, which does make you wonder whether he sees something of himself in the lead character, and fancies the idea of playing someone getting it on with a younger woman?
There’s no news on exactly when either Gotti or The Humbling will shoot, although it does appear the latter will come before the former, and will probably go in front of the cameras this autumn. That leaves open the questions on whether the Gotti cast will hang around during the rewrite, as currently the likes of John Travolta and Lindsay Lohan are currently attached, but may walk before it gets round to shooting (well, Lohan won’t, as she’s got little else to do other than wonder if she’ll end up back in prison).