While he’s knees deep in preparation for his next directorial effort, Zack Snyder is looking to get a top-tier cast for his next producing project. Deadline is reporting that Sean Penn is looking to join Christian Bale in the upcoming film, THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH.

Produced by Snyder and his wife Deborah, along with Hollywood Gang’s Gianna Nunnari, the film was originally set to be housed over at WB, but appears to be moving to Dark Castle for Joel Silver and Andrew Rona, and will follow “a war correspondent who witnesses and is the only survivor of an attack on a group of Americans. Penn is circling the role of a retired ex-special ops soldier who comes to the scene determined to free a family member who has been kidnapped. The journalist agrees to help identify the kidnappers and travel the rough terrain to find them, in exchange for the story. The road brings them in confrontation with tribal regions of Afghanistan, and none of the diplomats will help.”

Bale has been on board since the film’s inception, and is looking to shoot the film sometime in 2012, after he is done shooting WB and Chris Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Apparently Penn was being looked at by the studio for MAN OF STEEL, but he turned that and their TALES FROM THE GANGSTER SQUAD project down, leaving the door open for this project. Now that the film is going to likely be financed by Dark Castle, this will definitely be one of that company’s biggest projects. 

With director Niels Arden Oplev helming the film, based on a script by Kurt Johnstad, this project definitely has a ton of talent here. Oplev is best known for directing THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and its subsequent sequels in Sweden, and will give this picture a really interesting style. You couldn’t ask for a better cast, so here’s to hoping this thing can live up to the hype.

What do you think?