Al Pacino is attached to play controversial, assisted suicide doctor, Jack Kevorkian in an HBO biopic to be directed by Barry Levinson, reports Varitey.

The film will focus on Kevorkian’s development of the infamous “Mercy Machine,” his assisted suicide machine, and the public outcry it caused.

Adam Mazer is responsible for the script, and Levinson, Steve Lee Jones, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Glenn Rigberg will executive produce.  It has yet to be determined if Kevorkian will be involved at any stage in the production.

Jones, who has been prodding the project along for about five years, wrapped up the screen-rights to“Between the Dying and the Dead,” written by Harry Wylie and Neal Nicol on which the film will be based and successfully shopped it to HBO in 2007.