After winning Oscars for Milk and Mystic River and working with Terrence Malick, Woody Allen, Brian De Palma and more, it’s hard to believe Sean Penn never found time for a straight-up action flick. However, 2014 will finally change all of that as the actor has teamed up with the director of Taken, Pierre Morel, for a new project titled The Gunman.

Currently shooting in Europe, Penn has a different idea on the genre of the film, telling USA Today, “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. 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.” With a strong supporting cast including Javier Bardem, Idris Elba and Ray Winstone, producer Joel Silver is hoping to turn this one into a franchise.

A politically-tinged work, The Gunman — based on a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette and adapted by director Pete Travis (Dredd, Vantage Point) — revolves around Martin Terrier (Penn), a hitman whose plans to get out of the game with his true love (Jasmine Trinca) go awry when his company prove traitorous. Soon, a Europe-spanning journey of bloody deaths begins. Once this gets U.S. acquisition, we can expect a 2014 release and one can see the first still below featuring Penn as a man with a gun.

Are you looking forward to Penn’s action debut?

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