Barry Levinson and Al Pacino adapting Philip Roth's The Humbling before Gotti biopic (which probably won't star Harvey Weinstein)

Before Barry Levinson and Al Pacino attempt to bring some relative class back to the John Gotti biopic, the You Don’t Know Jack duo reportedly will reunite first on the adaptation of Philip Roth’s The Humbling, which they’ve been talking about doing since at least 2009. One of Roth’s most recent (and most poorly received) novels, The Humbling concerns an aging actor whose work has lost its luster, nearly driving him to suicide, but he finds new reason to live with a succession of sexual encounters with younger women. Something tells us Al Pacino will be able to relate to this story. (Also, between this and Imagine, how many pitches do you think Pacino hears a day like, "Okay, you play a guy who used to be great, but now he's old and useless and totally hates himself"? Probably a lot.)

Anyway, Deadline talked to Levinson, who said that the project is scheduled for a fall shoot, while Levinson’s Bugsy collaborator James Toback begins a total rewrite of the Gotti biopic and hopefully transforms it from a series of increasingly crass publicity stunts into something worth watching. In the meantime, that means a respite from headline-grabbing casting announcements—although the article relates this interesting anecdote:

"Let me give you something hot," Harvey Weinstein said as he walked up to our table. "I'm going to play Meyer Lansky in Barry's Gotti movie. It's a flashback, Gotti having a dream sequence. C'mon, Barry, I'll wipe Pacino and fucking Travolta off the screen. They will be trembling, I'm telling you." Then, Harvey bounded away.

…though obviously, this is ridiculous. Everyone knows that Harvey Weinstein doesn’t “bound away” from anything.