Mel Gibson and Sean Penn to Join Forces for First Time in The Professor and the Madman

After sitting on the film rights for almost two decades, Mel Gibson is finally ready to let The Professor and the Madman see the light of day, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Gibson has enlisted Sean Penn to star opposite him in the adaptation of the book penned by Simon Winchester. The Professor and the Madman is the true story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, which was headed by one Professor James Murray, played by Gibson. Penn will take over the role of Dr. W. C. Minor, who submitted more than 10,000 words for consideration but was then discovered to be an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

Apocalypto writer Farhad Sarfinia wrote the screenplay and will direct the film.

Surprisingly, Gibson and Penn have not yet worked together in Hollywood. If the plot line of The Professor and the Madman isn’t already interesting enough, the collaboration between these two will certainly be intriguing to say the least.