Sean Penn Takes Aim in New Trailer for THE GUNMAN

Sean Penn made quite a splash on social media last night when he said, "Who gave this son of a bitch his green card?" before handing the Best Picture trophy to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The two have apparently been friends for years (Inarritu directed Penn in 21 Grams back in 2003), but without that bit of context, his joke came off as insensitive and offensive to a lot of people.

I wonder if that comment will affect the reception of Penn's new film, The Gunman. Open Road has released a new trailer for the movie, and it reveals that the stakes are even more personal for Penn's character than we thought when his female companion is kidnapped. (Makes sense, considering that this movie was made by Pierre Morel, the same guy who directed Taken.) I'm still under the impression that the story seems like something we've seen a million times, but with a stellar cast that includes Idris Elba, Ray Winstone, Javier Bardem, and Mark Rylance, there's a chance that they could elevate the material into something memorable. The Gunman arrives in theaters on March 20th, 2015, and I'm guessing everyone will have forgotten all about Penn's joke by then.