Barry Levinson to direct life story of Jack Healey for Sony Pictures

Barry Levinson moves from one Jack to another. After completing You Don’t Know Jack — the HBO Dr. Jack Kevorkian biopic that received 15 Emmy nominations this morning — the legendary director will turn his sights to human rights activist Jack Healey.

Called Brother Jack, the biopic is a coming-of-age story about an idealist who leaves the priesthood for a life on the streets, and is credited with moving the topic of human rights into the public forum (which, in turn, inspired citizen action). Today, Healey heads the Human Rights Action Center in Washington D.C. He will produce the film with Mosaic.

The screenplay is being written by Harley Peyton, Levinson’s collaborator on 2001’s Bandits, with a current rewrite by Kelly Masterson (Before the Devil Knows Your Dead).