Sean Penn in talks to Star in GENIUS

Sean Penn is currently in talks to star in a film called Genius which will be adapted from the A. Scott Berg biography, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. This is the story of literary editor Max Perkins. The movie will be directed by Bill Pohlad, the producer-financier behind River Road Entertainment. Pohlad also produced and helped finance Into the Wild, which Penn directed in 2007. 

The script for the film was written John Logan who wrote Gladiator, Rango, Hugo Cabret, The Aviator, and a few other great films. So there's no doubt the script for this movie is going to be solid.

Here is the description for the book:

MAX PERKINS: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg took the literary world by storm upon its publication in 1978, garnering rave reviews and winning the National Book Award. A meticulously-researched and engaging portrait of the man who introduced the public to the greatest writers of this century, Berg's biography stands as one of the finest books on the publishing industry ever written. Unavailable for the last few years, MAX PERKINS is now being re-released (on the fiftieth anniversary of the great editor's death.

The driving force behind such literary superstars as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe, Max Evarts Perkins was the most admired book editor in the world. From the first major novel he edited(Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise(to the last(James Jones's bestselling From Here to Eternity(Perkins revolutionized American literature. Perkins was tirelessly committed to nurturing talent no matter how young or unproven the writer.

Filled with colorful anecdotes about everything from Perkins's struggles to convince the old guard at Scribners to publish his visionary (and often controversial) authors to his falling out with one of his most brilliant discoveries, Thomas Wolfe, MAX PERKINS reveals with insight and humor the professional and personal life of one of the most legendary figures in the history of American publishing. Given unprecedented access to the correspondence between Perkins and his writers, Berg has fashioned a compellingly thorough biography that is as entertaining as it is informative.

A vivid portrait of one man's life and a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the creation of literature, A. Scott Berg's MAX PERKINS: Editor of Genius is a masterful achievement in scholarship and writing.