Penn State scandal headed for theaters

Production is set to begin this month on "Happy Valley," a documentary about the sex-abuse case against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

A&E IndieFilms, the documentary production arm of A&E Network, made the announcement earlier today.

The Penn State scandal, in which Sandusky was charged with sexually molesting eight young boys over a 15-year period, rocked the university and college football fans around the country last year, especially when it became apparent that head coach Joe Paterno and others with knowledge of the alleged abuses had failed to alert authorities. The headlines tarnished the reputation of the school's championship team, the Nittany Lions, and served as an ignominious epitaph for Paterno, a once-beloved figure in a community known to sports fans as Happy Valley.

Paterno was fired in November after news of the scandal broke. He died in January.

One of the film's producers is Jonathan Koch of Asylum Entertainment, who in his youth served as a camp counselor for The Second Mile, the nonprofit organization for underprivileged kids that was founded by Sandusky.

“When you are raised in Happy Valley, you feel as though nothing like this could ever happen there,” Koch said in a news release. "This project has such gravity, importance, and significant personal meaning to me, and I am honored that this extraordinary team of filmmakers has joined me to tell the story.”

The director is Amir Bar-Lev and the producer is John Battsek, whose previous credits include the A&E documentaries "The Tillman Story" and "My Kid Could Paint That."