Al Pacino set for Dr Death role
Story by Jack Foley
AL Pacino is in negotiations to play a notorious doctor who assisted in more than 150 cases of suicide in the US.
The biopic will focus on Jack Kervokian’s rise to prominence, from the time he built his “Mercy Machine” to conducting his first assisted suicide.
It will be directed by Barry Levinson (of Rain Man fame), according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The film will also trace the subsequent media frenzy surrounding the legal battles he fought defending a patient’s right to die.
Kevorkian – who became dubbed Dr Death – managed to beat the system many times but was eventually stopped after he sent a video tape of himself euthanising a terminally ill man to a TV news programme. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999.
A script has been written by Adam Mazer (of Breach fame) that’s loosely based on Neal Nicol’s novel, Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Assisted Suicide Machine and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia.
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