The Girlfriend Experience alumna Riley Keough has been tapped for a key role opposite Al Pacino in HBO Films’ untitled movie about the Penn State sexual abuse scandal, directed and executive produced by Barry Levinson.

Written by Debora Cahn, John C. Richards and David McKenna, the film centers on legendary coach Joe Paterno (Pacino), who, after becoming the winningest coach in college football history, is embroiled in Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, challenging his legacy and forcing him to face questions of institutional failure on behalf of the victims.

Keough will play Sara Ganim, the 23-year-old journalist who first reported on the Sandusky case, bringing it to the attention of the Happy Valley, PA, community and national media. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting.

Levinson, Tom Fontana and Jason Sosnoff executive produce via Levinson/Fontana alongside Wall Street producer Edward R. Pressman and Pacino’s manager Rick Nicita. Lindsay Sloane also is exec producing for HBO Films and Sony Pictures Television.

Keough received a Golden Globe nomination for her starring role in the first season of Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience anthology series for Starz. She can be seen alongside Robert Redford and Rooney Mara in Netflix’s The Discovery and Trey Edward Shults’ It Comes At Night. She also has starring roles in Justin Kelly’s Welcome The Stranger, Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky and David Robert Mitchell’s Under The Silver Lake — all due out later this year. She’ll also be seen in Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built and Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold The Dark, both set for release in 2018.

Keough is repped by WME and Thirty Three Management.