Al Pacino seems like he took a couple years off from acting. Ever since 2008’s Righteous Kill we haven’t seen much from the legendary actor. But now news of his next career moves have suddenly started trickling in pretty steadily. Last week it was revealed that he’s negotiating to make a movie about an aging rocker with Dan Fogelman, and we already know he’s set to be in Barry Levinson’s eventual Gotti movie; but new word is that before the troubled but headline grabbing Gotti pic gets off the ground Levinson and Pacino are going to work together on something else first. Levinson is set to adapt the Philip Roth novel “The Humbling” from a screenplay written by Buck Henry, Michal Zebede, and Levinson himself. Pacino would star as the book’s protagonist, Simon Axler. The inside cover of the novel describes the story like so: “Everything is over for Simon Axler, the protagonist of Philip Roth’s startling new book. One of the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, he has lost his magic, his talent, and his assurance. … Into this shattering account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counter-plot of unusual erotic desire, a consolation for a bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not toward comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and more shocking end. In this long day’s journey into night, told with Roth’s inimitable urgency, bravura, and gravity, all the ways that we convince ourselves of [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

When Peter Segal and Co. set out to make this new version of Get Smart, they set out not to remake, but to reinvigorate. In that light, their film can be seen as a significant accomplishment.