Al Pacino Will Star as Phil Spector in Mamet-Helmed HBO Film

Oscar winner Al Pacino will tackle the role of record producer Phil Spector in an upcoming HBO film, according to The New York Times. David Mamet will write and direct the as-yet-untitled project about the legendary music-maker/wig-wearer now serving 19 years to life in prison for murder. Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) is signed on to produce.

The film will be a reunion of sorts for Mamet and Pacino. In 1983, Pacino starred in the first Broadway revival of Mamet’s hit American Buffalo. Twenty-seven theater seasons later, both men are currently represented on Broadway: Mamet’s A Life in the Theater, starring Patrick Stewart and T.R. Knight, is currently playing the Great White Way, and Pacino is returning to the role of Shylock in the upcoming Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice, after the show’s successful Shakespeare in the Park run earlier this year.

Spector made his name working with '60s girl groups, and produced over 25 Top 40 hits between 1960 and 1965. He co-wrote the Righteous Brothers’ hit “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” and went on to work with artists like Ike and Tina Turner, John Lennon and the Ramones, and produce The Beatles’ album Let It Be. In 2009, he was convicted of the second degree murder of Lana Clarkson.