Mel Gibson and Sean Penn to Star in 'The Professor and the Madman'
Mel Gibson is set to star in The Professor and the Madman, with Sean Penn in talks to join, in a drama about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Gibson is producing the film with Voltage Pictures, almost two decades after securing the rights to adapt the book, written by Simon Winchester. Farhad Safinia, who wrote Apocalypto, will direct from a script he wrote himself, with production sighted for October.
Gibson plays professor James Murray, who began compiling the dictionary in 1857. Penn will play Dr. William Chester Minor, should he join, who submitted over 10,000 entries while he was an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
Gibson's latest directorial effort, WWII drama Hacksaw Ridge, is set for debut on November 4.
Source: Variety
