Penn, Damon Got Milk

Mon., Sep. 10, 2007 1:13 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Sean Penn is ready to milk some history for his next big-screen trick.

The Oscar-winning thesp has signed on to play one of America's first openly gay big-city politicians, Harvey Milk, in a yet-to-be-titled biopic for director Gus Van Sant, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Matt Damon is also being courted to star as a murderous rival politico.

In the 1970s, Milk was known as the "Mayor of Castro Street" after rising from an activist in San Francisco's gay enclave to a seat on the city's Board of Supervisors. There, he made history sponsoring a gay-rights bill and fighting discrimination against public schools teachers based on their sexual orientation.

Damon is tentatively set to play Dan White, a conservative who resigned from the Board of Supervisors and wound up assassinating Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in 1978. White served five years in prison before committing suicide in 1985.

Milk's tragic death made him a martyr among gay-rights activists, not to mention a subject of intense interest from Hollywood.

The project has long been a passion for Van Sant, who launched his career exploring same-sex relationships with 1991's My Own Private Idaho, about two male hustlers.

While this will be Penn's first collaboration with Van Zant, Damon and Van Sant go back a decade. Van Sant helmed 1997's Good Will Hunting, which established Damon as a Hollywood star and earned the Best Original Screenplay Oscars for Damon and Ben Affleck. Damon also cowrote and appeared in Van Sant's 2002 feature, Gerry, opposite Casey Affleck.

But Van Zant and crew better begin their Milk work quickly.

That's because Warner Bros.'s art-house unit, Warner Independent Pictures, is in league with Hairspray producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron for a feature film version of Randy Shilts' 1982 biography, The Mayor of Castro Street.

Two years ago, the studio tapped another well known gay director, Bryan Singer (The X-Men, Superman Returns) to take the reins on the project. But it's been repeatedly delayed while the script has gone through several rewrites.

Warner Independent brought in Singer's Usual Suspects Oscar-winning scribe, Christopher McQuarrie, to pen a new draft. However, the screenwriter has also been in Germany working with Singer on Valkyrie, a World War II thriller he wrote starring Tom Cruise.

Due to their Valkyrie obligations and Singer's commitment to start shooting a Superman sequel for 2009, filming on Castro Street will likely have to wait until Singer's slate clears up, most likely giving Van Zant first crack at the story. Ironically Van Zant was once attached to direct Castro for Warners, and even took a pass on the script.

Milk will mark Penn's first gay character save for a turn as a sexually nebulous Olivia Newton-John impersonator known as "Groovin' Larry" in a video short way back in 1981. The clip ended up being included in underground filmmaker Trent Harris' 2001 cult film, Beaver Trilogy.

Penn, whose next directorial effort, Into The Wild, arrives in theaters on Sept. 21, is currently back behind the camera working on a segment for 8. The project compiles eight shorts from noted filmmakers, including Van Sant and Jane Campion, focusing on the challenges facing the planet.

Penn's Milk movie is being produced by Michael London's Groundswell Productions in association with the duo behind American Beauty, Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks. Damon's participation is apparently contingent on the film getting a distributor and setting a production date.

But if all goes well, Van Zant could start shooting as early as December.