Director Barry Levinson is getting ready to jump back into the studio filmmaking pool, attaching himself to “Brother Jack,” a film based on the life of human rights activist Jack Healey.
The “Rain Man,” “Diner” and “Good Morning, Vietnam” director had a bit of a rough run in the aughts with handful of poorly received films, including “Bandits,” “Man Of The Year” and “What Just Happened.” However, he bounced back in a huge way this spring with the HBO film “You Don’t Know Jack” starring Al Pacino as Jack Kevorkian. The film picked up 15 Emmy nominations this morning (whoa), making us pretty bummed that we missed it when it originally aired.
Set up at Columbia Pictures, this new film was written by Harley Peyton (the aforementioned “Bandits,” “Heaven’s Prisoners”) and is promisingly undergoing a rewrite by Kelly Masterson (“Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead”). Jack Healey has been an activist for a variety of human rights causes for over 40 years, but in recent years is best known for his work surrounding Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected leader of Burma/Myanmar who has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.
No word on casting at this time, but that probably won’t be done until a script is finished.
