The blogosphere is all abuzz about Sean Penn taking a year away from acting.
Deadline Hollywood says, the actor — who has filed for divorce twice from wife Robin Wright Penn in the last two years, only to immediately, change his mind both times —
wants to quit acting for a year, “regroup” and “just needs personal time.”
Presumably this means spending more time with the family and figuring shit out. The trades (Variety) have made it official and apparently Penn has pulled out of all his upcoming projects including the Farrelly brother’s remake of “The Three Stooges” with Benicio del Toro and Jim Carrey that had hoped to shoot this August with a fall 2010 release date.
Another project suddenly gone dark, the Asger Leth-directed drama “Cartel.” Two projects are in the can, Doug Liman’s drama about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, “Fair Game,” co-starring Naomi Watts and Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” which also stars Brad Pitt.
It’s unclear what the Farrelly Brothers and MGM will do: wait on Penn a year or go forward and not face the risk of losing both Carrey and del Toro, but man, even the the Hollywood Reporter — not really known for its humor in articles — makes us laugh when they say, “On the other hand, half of Hollywood would poke their eyes out for the part.” Funny. “Cartel,” will apparently move on and recast.
Strangely enough not Finke, the trades or anyone else mentions Penn’s almost-divorces the last one of which almost happened in May, not that long ago. Have they forgotten? (correction THR does, the others don’t)