SeanPenn Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Remember when Sean Penn decided to back away from Hollywood to tend to his family? Well, that didn't seem to go too well. Only a short time later in August, Robin Wright Penn filed for divorce. So much for finding familial focus. With all that freed time, one might think he'd chill with his kids, or head back to acting. Nope. Why do that when you can hunt down dictators?

TMZ reports that Penn has once again put on his part-time journalist hat and flown to Cuba to hunt down an interview with Fidel Castro for Vanity Fair. He hopped on a plane with Diana Jenkins earlier this week in Las Vegas, headed for Havana. (I'm guessing that there's a stop along the way. As far as I know, flying from the U.S. to Cuba is not exactly okay.) But there's a little he-said, she-said among the sources. Barclays contacts say he's going there to meet Castro and talk about how the Obama administration has affected Cuba. Penn's rep told the site that a meeting is possible, but there's no current appointment or plan to meet with the dictator. Methinks that's just evading the topic. One doesn't go to Cuba, have no plans to meet with Castro, yet say that a meeting is possible.

Penn has entered sticky situations before -- most notably with Hugo Chavez, who he thinks is "much more positive for Venezuela than he is negative." But is that enough to make him the first Western journalist to interview the man in three years, since Castro stepped out of the spotlight?

Adjust your calenders, and don't hold your breath for Terrence Malick. (If you ever hold your breath for Malick, that is. His latest opus, The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn,was given a tentative release date of December 25, 2009. But it won't be making that date, according to Apparition Films' Bob Berney. Thompson on Hollywood caught up with Berney, who said the date was "wishful" thinking, and that the film will not be released in 2009.

Why the delay? If you know Malick at all, you know the answer to that. The film is not yet finished. The Tree of Life has already been a 30-year journey for Malick, and another year (or two, or three) won't make any difference to the notoriously meticulous director. No one has even seen the film, or knows what form its final cut will take. All that's really known about the movie is that it's a family drama that spans the 1950s and deals with the loss of innocence.

Apparition Films remains optimistic that you'll see the film in 2010. It won't make Sundance, but it's likely to make Cannes. (That is the film festival that belongs to Pitt and Angelina Jolie, so fate would dictate that's where it would premiere!) But even that is up in the air, as Berney admits he has no idea when the film will be finished, or when it will be released.

In Milk, Josh Brolin got to play the man who wanted Sean Penn's Harvey Milk out of the way. Now, Brolin gets to be the acclaimed actor's replacement. Variety reports that Brolin has signed on to star in Asger Leth's Cartel -- the role that Penn vacated back in June when he decided to take a break from Hollywood and focus on his personal life.

Inspired by the early '90s Italian film called La scorta, Cartel follows Ed Marker (Brolin) -- a man who "journeys to protect his son after his wife is brutally murdered in the gritty world of Mexican cartels." This is a big jump from the original film, which focused on the struggles of four cops trying to keep a prosecutor safe while mob bosses were brought to justice. So much for a remake!

But what do you think of the switch? I think it goes without saying that Brolin's talents are certainly worthy, but how do you think the change in actors will affect the film? Considering the gritty beauty of Leth's Ghosts of Cite Soliel, I think Brolin's the perfect match. It's no stretch to imagine him sliding into Leth's visual style whilst battling drug-dealing baddies, although it would've been nice to see Penn take on a rough gig like that. Production begins this January in Mexico City.

There's a long-running joke in Hollywood that one of the easiest ways to earn an Oscar is to either 'Ugly it up" or contract a disease. But, in recent years, one of the newer trends that can lead an actor to the podium is for them to take on a role where they play a person of same-sex orientation (a fact that has already become the stuff of satire). Over the past 10 years, plenty of actors have earned Oscars for playing gay roles, and the latest actor to join the club could be Matt Damon, who has signed to play Liberace's lover in Steven Soderbergh's biopic of the flamboyant musician.

So what's the big deal? Don't actors pretend to be different people all the time ... isn't that their job? Well, yes, but it's a little more complicated than that. Gay and lesbian political advocates have long lamented the sad state of affairs where straight actors are getting gay roles, instead of giving 'out' actors their chance to shine. So, while I question the idea that only gay actors could play a gay character, just as only straight actors can play straight characters, the sad fact is that Hollywood is still relatively puritanical when it comes to allowing their actors and actresses to be out and proud -- and that needs to change. But, that doesn't mean I think an actor (gay or straight) shouldn't play role any role they want ... just as long as they're good at it.

So on that note, I decided to give a little credit to five performances by straight actors in gay roles that transcended orientation and, ultimately, are just damn fine performances.

After the jump: my picks for the best of straight actors going gay for pay...

In the last few years, Emile Hirsch has become a go-to resource for directors of all sorts of films: After starring in Sean Penn's Into the Wild, Hirsch took on the reins of Speed Racer, a massive, effects-driven action film from The Matrix's Wachowski brothers, and then collaborated on screen with Penn again, in a supporting but essential role in Gus Van Sant's Milk. In his latest project, Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, Hirsch tackles yet another period character, this time playing a young Vietnam veteran who regains a little bit of his humanity when the iconic music festival descends on his hometown.

Cinematical recently spoke to Hirsch in an exclusive telephone interview about his role in Taking Woodstock. In addition to discussing the challenges of bringing a character to life whose behavior, if not very identity, has become as familiar to audiences as the imagery of Woodstock itself, Hirsch revealed some of the sources of inspiration he took for his portrayal, and talked about the futility of coming up with a strategy for one's acting career.

Cinematical: The character you played in Into the Wild had his own tragic past, but the way that he dealt with it was with a greater degree of serenity. Did you see any parallels or similarities when you took on this role in Taking Woodstock?

I've got nothing against the thought of Sean Penn getting funny. In fact, I wished for that very thing earlier this month. But grabbing the funny by becoming one of the Three Stooges? Sean Penn as Larry Fine? Surely Mr. Penn had fallen on his head, partook in the drugs, or entered into some other type of shenanigans to become that crazy. Luckily, while he may not have come to his senses about the project, he's also no longer involved. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Penn has dropped The Three Stooges as well as his much more desirable project, that crime thriller called Cartel.

Ideally, this would the result of the actor taking a cue from Happy Harry Hard On and saying: "Hey wait a minute, what is wrong with this picture?" But no, this Nicole Kidman-like move has nothing to do with the parts themselves. It turns out that he wants to leave the movie biz for a while to focus on his family. I imagine that he wants to work things out with Robin Wright Penn so that he doesn't have to keep filing and rescinding divorce proceedings. The man is most definitely confused. There's no definitive word on how long this will last, but THR sources say it'll be a year.

One can only hope that this will mean the end of the dreaded Stooges, but hopefully Asger Leth's Cartel won't be as hurt by the sudden decision. What do you think of Penn's sudden au revoir from Hollywood, and can the Farrellys find a suitable Fine replacement? And who should fight Mexican drug cartels?

With never-ending zeal, Hollywood looks back to the good ol' days with remakes and re-imaginings. But it's always the plots; always the stories. What about the actors? If there was any way that looking to the past would be beneficial, it would be grabbing those actors of today and getting them to dip back into the roles of yesterday -- the gigs that made us love them, but were so soon forgotten or cast aside.

Between casting ruts and earnest attempts to foster specific career paths, actors all too often leave their well-loved roots in the past, becoming an entirely different sort of performer. Very rarely do we get glimpses of those early years, and as nice as it is to see glimpses of former glory in a skit that pops up on SNL or Funny or Die, it's not the same as a feature-length, starring gig.

What follows are seven actors and actresses who are ripe for a return to the past. Naturally, this is only the start of a very long list, so be sure to add your picks in the comments.

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

The Oscars are history now and soon people won't even be able to remember the winners. But I keep thinking about that Best Actor race that came down to a near-draw between Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler (291 screens) and Sean Penn for Milk (111 screens). My group, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, simply called it a tie. We agreed that both men gave the performance of their lifetimes. Other critics groups and other year-end awards also split between them; there was no clear consensus. For my annual predictions, I went with my gut on this one: I got the vague impression that, just from the cultural temperature, people were really into Rourke. But Penn won. And now that it's over -- with some hindsight -- it makes perfect sense. The Oscars didn't want to ruin The Wrestler for us.

Whenever you imagined a dream cast to play the Three Stooges in a movie, did you ever imagine an Academy Award-winning gay activist would be the first to sign? Sean Penn (?!) has agreed to play Larry in The Three Stooges, according to Variety, and Jim Carrey is negotiating for the part of Curly. Reportedly, Carrey is preparing to gain 40 pounds so he can play the role. And to play Moe? None other than Benicio Del Toro is being targeted by MGM and the Farrelly Brothers.

Jim Carrey would be a natural, of course, but Sean Penn? Does he have a funny bone in his body? His last attempt at a humorous role came in 1989's We're No Angels, a woefully unfunny film in which Penn was teamed with Robert DeNiro. Sure, he made his bones as the stoned surfer Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but it takes a real stretch of imagination to think he can play a Stooge. Stranger things have happened, though, and maybe Penn will pull a rabbit out of his ultra-serious persona and shock us all.

Del Toro doesn't have much of a comedy resume, either, though Variety's article claims he "showed comic chops" in Guy Ritchie's Snatch. Peter and Bobby Farrelly have written the script and will direct. The film is intended to be "not a biopic, but rather a comedy built around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Howard played in the Columbia Pictures shorts." Production is scheduled to begin in the fall for a 2010 release.

Am I underrating Sean Penn's comic abilities? Are you itching to see Penn, Carrey, and Del Toro as The Three Stooges?

If there's a project to watch over the next few years, it's this one.

Variety reports that Sean Penn is in talks to star in a new movie called Cartel. That's noteworthy on its own, but it's downright irresistible when you know who is directing it: Asger Leth -- the man behind the beautifully gritty and stunning documentary The Ghosts of Cite Soliel. This project isn't new, however. This is the La Scorta remake that Leth boarded all the way back in 2007 -- and it looks like things have changed a bit.

The film was originally intended to be a close remake, focusing on cops struggling to guard a prosecutor who is about to go up against the mob. However, it "evolved into an action vehicle for Penn." Now, the Peter Craig script will focus on "Ed Marker as he journeys to protect his son after his wife is brutally murdered in the gritty world of Mexican cartels." It's a bit of a jump, but one that should work well for this duo -- Penn's Oscar winning acting chops merged with Leth's directorial eye -- one that should move smoothly from Haiti's slums to the gritty areas of Mexico. And hey, any diversions from a spot-on remake are a good thing.

If Penn officially signs on, production will start by summer. My fingers are crossed!

Follow me on Twitter!