Here are some pictures of Sean Penn playing the legendary gay rights activist, Harvey Milk, in his unshaven, pre-election years. Age-wise, the forty-seven-year-old Penn’s a perfect match for the 1970s Milk (who was born in 1930). As for the demeanor, Penn’s much more of a brooder. He’s also a brilliant actor, so I’m sure he’ll burrow into the soul of Milk and give director Gus Van Sant a tremendous performance.
There’s a whole mess o’ pics over at ohnotheydidnt (via OhLaLaMag.com), and the highlight is, undoubtedly, the marquee at the Castro Theater (emblazoned with “Irwin Allen’s The Poseidon Adventure”). Milk is Van Sant’s highest profile movie since 2000’s internet watershed Finding Forrester, and while I prefer him working in miniature, he deserves greater recognition. I mean, you could make a very credible argument that he’s one of the twenty greatest filmmakers working today, so better him than Rob Cohen (although I hear the auteur of Stealth has a deeply felt James Baldwin biopic in development).
Milk is definitely intended to be one of this fall’s big awards movies, so we’ll probably get our first crack at it in late August (at Venice and Telluride). Focus Features will distribute.