A first look at Sean Penn in the upcoming actioner The Gunman from director Pierre Morel has been released and while you may want to say, “Hey, look! Sean Penn is doing a fun action flick from the director of Taken,” he tells USA Today it’s much more than that.
“Here’s the funny thing, calling it an ‘action film’ is kind of like calling Meryl Streep a sexy blonde chick. She is. But that really doesn’t tell the story of what she is at all,” he said. “I don’t separate this in my mind from anything else I have done. It’s a very human story that deals with the same things exploited in action films, like warfare.”
The film co-stars an impressive list of names including Idris Elba, Javier Bardem and Sam Riley and centers on an international spy (Penn) who must clear his name in order to save himself from the organization that he used to work for. So, essentially another Bourne-style thriller.
Personally, I can’t help but be curious as to how a Morel-directed film with this kind of talent may actually turn out. The fact Joel Silver is producing and not Luc Besson is a little interesting on top of the fact Pete Travis (director of Vantage Point and Dredd) is making his writing debut is also a bit curious as he adapts Jean-Patrick Manchette‘s novel.
There isn’t a release date or even a domestic distributor as of yet, but these seems like a title prime for Fox, FilmDistrict or Open Road so be on the lookout.
