2000–2018: Television roles and return to Broadway
Pacino won three Golden Globes since 2000; the first being the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001 for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. In 2000, Pacino starred alongside Jerry Orbach in a low-budget film adaptation of Ira Lewis' play Chinese Coffee, which was released to film festivals. Shot almost exclusively as a one-on-one conversation between two main characters, the project took nearly three years to complete and was funded entirely by Pacino. Chinese Coffee was included with Pacino's two other rare films he was involved in producing, The Local Stigmatic and Looking for Richard, on a special DVD box set titled Pacino: An Actor's Vision, which was released in 2007. Pacino produced prologues and epilogues for the discs containing the films.
In October 2002, Pacino starred in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui for the National Actor's Theater and Complicite. Directed by Simon McBurney, the production starred a host of Hollywood names, including John Goodman, Charles Durning, Tony Randall, Steve Buscemi, Chazz Palminteri, Paul Giamatti, Jacqueline McKenzie, Billy Crudup, Lothaire Bluteau, Dominic Chianese, and Sterling K. Brown. The production was a critical success in which "Pacino grabs and holds the attention like a coiled spring about to snap. He is all brooding menace and crocodile grimace, butchering his way to the top with unnervingly sinister glee." Director Christopher Nolan worked with Pacino on Insomnia, a remake of the Norwegian film of the same name, co-starring Robin Williams. Newsweek stated that "he [Pacino] can play small as rivetingly as he can play big, that he can implode as well as explode". The film and Pacino's performance were well received, gaining a favorable rating of 93 percent on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. The film did moderately well at the box office, taking in $113 million worldwide. His next film, S1m0ne, however, did not receive much critical praise or box office success. He played a publicist in People I Know (2002), a small film that received little attention despite Pacino's well-received performance.
Rarely taking a supporting role since his commercial breakthrough, he accepted a small part in the critical and box office flop Gigli, in 2003, as a favor to director Martin Brest. The Recruit, released in 2003, featured Pacino as a CIA recruiter and co-stars Colin Farrell. The film received mixed reviews, and has been described by Pacino as something he "personally couldn't follow". Pacino next starred as lawyer Roy Cohn in the 2003 HBO miniseries Angels in America, an adaptation of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name. For this performance, Pacino won his third Golden Globe, for Best Performance by an Actor, in 2004.
Pacino starred as Shylock in Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of The Merchant of Venice. Critics praised him for bringing compassion and depth to a character traditionally played as a villainous caricature. In Two for the Money, Pacino portrays a sports gambling agent and mentor for Matthew McConaughey, alongside Rene Russo. The film was released on October 8, 2005, to mixed reviews. Desson Thomson wrote in The Washington Post, "Al Pacino has played the mentor so many times, he ought to get a kingmaker's award ... the fight between good and evil feels fixed in favor of Hollywood redemption." Pacino turned down an offer to reprise his role as Michael Corleone in the computer game version of The Godfather (2006). As a result, Electronic Arts was not permitted to use Pacino's likeness or voice in the game, although his character does appear in it. He did allow his likeness to appear in the video game adaptation of 1983's Scarface, the quasi-sequel Scarface: The World is Yours. On October 20, 2006, the American Film Institute named Pacino the recipient of the 35th AFI Life Achievement Award. On November 22, 2006, the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin awarded Pacino the Honorary Patronage of the Society.
Pacino starred in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Thirteen (2007), alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Elliott Gould, and Andy García, as the villain Willy Bank, a casino tycoon targeted by Danny Ocean and his crew. The film received generally favorable reviews. 88 Minutes was released on April 18, 2008, in the United States, after having been released in various other countries in 2007. The film co-starred Alicia Witt and was critically panned, although critics found fault with the plot, and not Pacino's acting. In Righteous Kill, Pacino and Robert De Niro co-star as New York detectives searching for a serial killer. The film was released to theaters on September 12, 2008. While it was an anticipated return for the two stars, it was not well received by critics.
Pacino returned to the stage in the summer of 2010, playing Shylock in the Shakespeare in the Park production, The Merchant of Venice. The acclaimed production moved to Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre in October, earning US$1 million at the box office in its first week. The performance also garnered him a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play. Pacino played Jack Kevorkian in an HBO Films biopic titled You Don't Know Jack, which premiered April 2010. The film is about the life and work of the physician-assisted suicide advocate. The performance earned Pacino his second Emmy Award for lead actor and his fourth Golden Globe award. He co-starred as himself in the 2011 comedy film Jack and Jill. The film was panned by critics, and Pacino "won" the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor at the 32nd ceremony. Elaborating on his decision to join the cast of the film, he stated: "It came at a time in my life that I needed it, because it was after I found out I had no more money. My accountant [Kenneth I. Starr] was in prison, and I needed something quickly. So I took (Jack and Jill.)"
He was presented with Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award on September 4, 2011, prior to the premiere of Wilde Salomé, a 2011 American documentary-drama film written, directed by and starring Pacino. Its US premiere on the evening of March 21, 2012, before a full house at the 1,400-seat Castro Theatre in San Francisco's Castro District, marked the 130th anniversary of Oscar Wilde's visit to San Francisco. The event was a benefit for the GLBT Historical Society. Pacino, who plays the role of Herod in the film, describes it as his "most personal project ever". In February 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Pacino the National Medal of Arts. In September 2012, Deadline Hollywood reported that Pacino would play the former Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno in the television film Paterno based on a 2012 biography by sportswriter Joe Posnanski. Paterno premiered on HBO on April 7, 2018. Pacino starred in the 30th-anniversary Broadway revival of David Mamet's play, Glengarry Glen Ross, which ran from October 2012 to January 20, 2013. He also starred in a 2013 HBO biographical picture about record producer Phil Spector's murder trial, titled Phil Spector.
In 2015, Pacino took the title role in the comedy-drama Danny Collins. His performance as an aging rock star garnered him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination. He starred on Broadway in China Doll, a play written for him by Mamet, which opened on December 5, 2015, and closed on January 21, 2016, after 97 performances. The previews were done in October 2015.
In 2016, Pacino received the Kennedy Center Honor. The tribute included remarks by his former costars Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Bobby Cannavale and Chris O'Donnell. Speaking about the possibility of retiring, Pacino said: "Acting, especially if you've done it as long as I have, it becomes such a part of your nature you rarely ever think about quitting or anything like that."
