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Sean Penn Becoming 'Prone Gunman' for 'Taken' Director Pierre Morel

by Ethan Anderton
January 29, 2013
Source: Heat Vision

After injecting some action life into Liam Neeson's career with Taken, director Pierre Morel just might do the same thing with Sean Penn. Heat Vision has word that Morel is currently in talks to direct Penn in an action thriller called Prone Gunman, based on Jean-Patrick Macnhette's novel of the same name with a script by Dredd and Vantage Point director Pete Travis. In a story that's not much different from Taken, the story will have Penn playing international hitman artin Terrier who is betrayed by the organization he works for and must go on the run in a relentless game of cat-and-mouse across all of Europe. More below!

Here's a more detailed synopsis of the book, which also adds a love interest:

French hit man Martin Terrier wants to quit the killing-for-francs business and go home to marry his childhood sweetheart. Those in charge want him to assassinate one more person--the Arab sheik Hakim--and, confiscating Terrier's savings, coerce him to do so. Learning that his assignment is actually a setup that will truly be his final mission, Terrier foils the plot just in time, gets his revenge, gets the girl, and starts a new life in the Ardennes. Fin? Non. Terrier's blissful retirement and our happy ending are spoiled by the leftover bullet lodged in his brain and his unsavory new tendency to blabber. His lack of savings forces him to work as a waiter, and his wife, tired of poverty and three-minute coitus, eventually leaves him.

Though I was hoping Penn's turn in Gangster Squad was going to be a little more than a gritty Dick Tracy villain, this sounds like it could make Penn an action star. After all, Joel Silver (of Lethal Weapon and The Matrix fame) is producing after finishing work on Liam Neeson's Non-Stop, so this could be a big hit. Production is supposed to begin this spring, so expect this film sometime early in 2014. Much in the same way Neeson brought some weight to the generic Taken to make it a bit more unique, Penn could do the same thing with Prone Gunman. Stay tuned.

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