About three weeks ago, I gave you a long-winded article covering the possible reuniting of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro for Art Linson‘s The Comedian. I stand corrected – The Playlist reports from NY Post that Sean Penn will be helming the feature. Or will he?
Not that anyone’s even signed on yet. The NY Post article cites unnamed sources, so it’s most likely another blip on the rumor radar. Written by Fight Club producer Linson and Jeffrey Ross, The Comedian follows an aging insult comic – a mash-up of Don Rickles and Joan Rivers, apparently.
It still sounds like a good role, and despite Penn’s frequently-reported plan to retire from acting to direct full time, he’ll be seen (in an alarming wig) as an aged rock star seeking his father’s ex-Nazi executioner in This Must Be Place, as well as Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life.
I loved his last directorial effort, 2007’s Into The Wild, and if Penn chooses The Comedian as his follow-up, all the better. He and De Niro starred together in Neil Jordan‘s 1989 “comedy” We’re No Angels – this is worth noting because it’s proof that A.) Penn and De Niro know each other, and B.) David Mamet really has no business trying to write a comedy.
Would you like to see Sean Penn direct Robert De Niro? If not in The Comedian, then in something else, maybe?