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December 17 - December 24, 2009 Edition

Al Pacino Buys Rights to Philip Roth Novel

HOLLYWOOD, CA/AUTHORLINK NEWS/12/16/09--Al Pacino has purchased movie rights to Philip Roth's The Humbling, about a washed up, aging stage actor who finds hope and renewal through a younger woman, according to The New York Times. It is the first time Mr. Pacino, who will play the lead role, has ever optioned a book.

Three other Hollywood heavyweights will be involved in bringing the novel to the multiplex. Barry Levinson, who won an Oscar for "Rain Man" and was nominated for "Bugsy" will direct. Buck Henry, best known for writing "The Graduate," and his other credits range from the original "Get Smart" television series, will write the screenplay. Henry, who just turned 79, is the perfect person to write the movie, according to Pacino's well-known publicist Pat Kingsley, Pacino, because of Henry's love of the stage. Though he hasn't experienced the feelings portrayed in Roth's novel, "he understands them," said Kingsley.

Philip Roth is the winner of the Nobel Prize, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. The Humbling has, however, received mixed reviews.