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Sean Penn is Now an Action Hero

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Sean Penn has two Oscars and tons of respect as a big name actor, but you ain’t somebody till you’ve snapped a few necks on camera, so he’ll soon join the ranks of the Neesons and Freemans as an old dude taking on an actiony role. Penn is set to star in Prone Gunman, an adaptation of a book of the same name by French author Jean-Patrcik Manchette.

Let’s read the book’s synopsis according to THR, and play the “espionage action movie drinking game:” the book follows “an international operative [take a shot!]… who is betrayed by the organization he works for [drink!] and must go on the run in a relentless game of cat-and-mouse across Europe [finish the glass!].” Penn, still being himself, hasn’t just signed up for any run-and-gun thriller, though. Apparently, Manchette’s work is “existentialist and involving explorations of politics as well as the human condition.” So he can have his murder cake and eat it as a proud progressive, too.

Can Penn “work” as an action guy? If you’d have asked the same question of me about Liam Neeson before Taken, I’d have said no, but look what happened there. And this isn’t even the most “out there” role Penn has taken on. Have you even seen a still from This Must Be the Place?

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