Jordan Peele’s TV project The Hunt is close to landing Al Pacino. The Amazon nazi hunter series previously cast Logan Lerman in a main role.
Not to be confused with Blumhouse’s upcoming Craig Zobel-directed movie of the same name, The Hunt takes place in 1977 New York City as Lerman’s Jonah Heidelbaum discovers a plot to establish a Fourth Reich in the United States. The 10-episode series was created by David Weil, who will also write each episode. As for Peele, The Hunt marks the latest endeavor for his Monkeypaw Productions, which collaborated with Blumhouse for the 2017 hit Get Out and Spike Lee’s Golden Globe-nominated 2018 film BlacKkKlansman. Monkeypaw Productions and Blumhouse also co-produced Peele’s upcoming second feature Us, a psychological thriller starring Black Panther’s Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke, with both set to reprise their roles as Nakia and M’Baku, respectively, in the 2019 MCU film Avengers: Endgame.
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Per Deadline, one of cinema’s most influential performers is set to star in Peele’s Amazon series The Hunt. While Pacino hasn’t officially signed a deal, he has committed to the nazi hunter production to portray Lerman’s mentor. The role would mark Pacino’s TV debut in a starring role, and it comes at an opportune time given the momentum of streaming platforms, and certainly the buzz that comes along with a Peele project. Aside from Us and The Hunt, Peele is also producing The Twilight Zone reboot for CBS, YouTube Premium’s science fiction comedy series Weird City, and Amazon’s documentary series Lorena about the infamous 1993 Lorena and John Bobbitt case, in which the former removed the latter's penis, thus prompting years of distasteful media coverage about a legal case with domestic and sexual assault at its core.
In recent years, Pacino has received accolades for his work in the movies You Don’t Know Jack (2011), Phil Spector (2014), and Danny Collins (2016). He also played the famous Penn St. football coach Joe Paterno in HBO’s 2018 film Paterno. But it’s Pacino’s performances throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s that influenced a generation of actors and actresses, most notably in classics like The Godfather (1972), Scarface (1983), and Scent of a Woman (1992), to name only a few. Over Pacino's five-decade career, he's won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and even two Tony Awards. In 2019, Pacino will star opposite Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, and he’ll appear in Quentin Tarantino’s Manson Family movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Birds of Prey's Margot Robbie.
Pacino was already primed for a big 2019, and his casting in Peele’s Amazon series The Hunt unofficially solidifies the next phase of his iconic career.
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Source: Deadline