Sarandon And Goodman Join Kevorkian Pic

With Al Pacino in 'Dr Death' TV movie

Sarandon And Goodman Join Kevorkian Pic

by Emily Phillips |
Published on

**Speed Racer **stars Susan Sarandon and John Goodman are set to be reunited, but this time it will be in the more fittingly dramatic setting alongside Al Pacino as he plays doctor and euthanasia campaigner Jack Kevorkian in the biopic You Don't Know Jack.

Kevorkian, a pathologist who became a pioneer and staunch campaigner for the right to euthanasia for terminal patients, gained the name Dr. Death as he became a practioner of assisting suicide for more than 130 patients.

In the name of raising the profile of legalising terminal patients' right to die, Kevorkian submitted video evidence of himself helping a man to end his life to 60 Minutes, which led to his conviction for second-degree murder and subsequent eight years imprisonment.

The film will draw on former colleague Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie's biography Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia. The doctor rose to prominence after constructing a facilitative device to allow patients to trigger the drugs to end their own lives which came to be known as the Mercy Machine, as well as his high-profile legal battles to campaign for the cause.

Goodman - up next in Vatican drama Pope Joan - will play Nicol, the laboratory technician who worked alongside Kevorkian for nearly forty years and campaigned alongside his friend about the cause. Sarandon joins the cast as fellow activist Janet Good, who supports Kevorian in his fight and chooses to follow the method when she herself is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The HBO film will be directed by Sleepers' Barry Levinson script by Breach writer Adam Mazer.

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