Penn & Hirsch Go Into The Wild...

Hey guys, it's Donnie...Variety is reporting that Sean Penn will direct his adaptation of John Krakauer's true story Into The Wild. Emile Hirsch (The Girl Next Door) will star as Christopher McCandless, a young man who, after graduating college in 1992, gave away all of his possessions and went to Alaska and hiked up onto Mt. McKinley to live in the wilderness. His decomposed body was found four months later by a moose hunter.

Penn hasn't directed anything since 2001's The Pledge, starring Jack Nicholson. I haven't seen his first effort, but I'm curious to see what Penn does as a director. He's certainly got a talented young actor in the form of Hirsch, who might even be described as a young Penn himself. He absolutely blew me away in Lords of Dogtown. We'll certainly be paying attention to this project in the future...