Mel Gibson and Sean Penn to star in Oxford Dictionary drama, a project 20 years in the making
This passion project will mark the actor-directors' first time working together
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Your support makes all the difference.A few years after directing Braveheart to Oscar-winning glory in 1995, Mel Gibson acquired the film rights to novel Professor and the Madman. Only now - two decades later - is the Australian actor-director ready to move ahead with the project.
The bestseller from author Simon Winchester - originally published in England as The Surgeon of Crowthorne in 1998 - tells the story of Professor James Murray, the talented linguist who compiled the Oxford English Dictionary in 1857.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gibson - originally attached to direct - will star as Murray while Sean Penn will play Dr. W.C. Minor, a mental asylum inmate who submitted over 10,000 entries. On directing duties is Gibson's Apocalypto writer Farhad Safinia who also created the political Kelsey Grammar-starring series, Boss (2011-12).
Somewhat surprisingly, this will be the first time Gibson and Penn have worked with one another despite gaining Hollywood recognition around similar times - the former in 1979's Mad Max and the latter in Taps (1981).
The first trailer for Hacksaw Ridge - Gibson's first directorial effort in ten years - was recently released showing Andrew Garfield in action as conscientious Desmond T. Doss.
Penn's most recent film as director is The Last Face which premiered to negative reviews at Cannes Film Festival in May.
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