Graham Spanier, the Penn State president who also was heavily criticized for inaction in the Sandusky scandal, should be portrayed by the right actor, as there are bound to be scenes involving some powerful exchanges between Al Pacino's Paterno and Spanier's character before and after Sandusky's investigation. Kevin Spacey is perfect at playing a clean-cut leader with buried ties to scandal—just look at his recent role in David Fincher's House of Cards—and would make a great Spanier.

As this is a film meant to dig deep into Paterno's past, there's a decent chance some scenes will feature a young Joe Paterno—an opportunity for a young actor to break into the drama genre. To play the former football player, we'd like to see Josh Hutcherson don a young Paterno's classic thick black glasses and slick coif. The role would be a good departure from his usual underdog, young-adult heartthrob. Hutcherson has just the right sort of square jaw to play a young football star.

Alongside a young Joe Paterno, we'd like to see the romance that unfolded between Pohland and Paterno at the Penn State campus. Thirteen years his junior, Sue Pohland met Paterno during his assistant coaching days when she was still a freshman English lit student, and subsequently married him upon graduating. Emma Roberts could do the job justice; she's begun to break into more serious roles and has a tame but pensive face.

As  one of the most incendiary public figures in recent years, Jerry Sandusky won't be an easy role to cast. He can't be reduced to a conventional villainous role, as Sandusky is a real, multi-dimensional and complicated person, and still at the center of sports talk today. The film could use someone like Michael Caine to play a man who can smile big and hide a lot. The role would mark a dark break from Caine's recent roles as the most reliable mentor of all time in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight films. We're sure Caine would appreciate the challenge of shedding his trademark English accent.

It's also possible that de Palma's film will touch on the role of assistant coach Mike McQueary in the Sandusky case. McQueary was identified as a key witness in the sex abuse scandal, having come forward with information about witnessing Sandusky with a boy in a campus locker room shower. MacQueary reported the information to Paterno, after which Paterno's inaction thrust him into the media limelight and public criticism. To play the controversial young coach full of conviction against Sandusky's actions, we pick Kevin McKidd. He's played a wide range of characters—a stuttering jewel thief, a heartthrob Iraq-veteran doctor—and has same bright ginger hair as McQueary.

Happy Valley will undoubtedly need an actress able to hold her own against Pacino as Joe Paterno's wife of fifty years, Sue Pohland Paterno. We'd give the role to Blythe Danner, considering her familiarity with the role of a sweet-faced, smart, and loyal wife to the good-hearted but cantankerous father.