Sean Penn isn’t an actor who we normally thing of when it comes to action movies, but it seems he wants to try one out, as THR reports that he has joined a planned adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s action novel The Prone Gunman.
The book is about a hired gun called Martin Terrier, who is trying to retire from his profession (why are assassins always trying to retire in movies?). After his failed attempt to leave his chosen life, he ends up in a brutal cat-and-mouse chase across Europe. Manchettes book has been described as existentialist, as much a look at the human condition as an action film – which is probably what Penn likes.
Peter Travis is set to write the script, although it’s not known whne it might shoot.