Sean Penn to Play for Laughs With De Niro's Comedian

Sean Penn has signed up to direct Hollywood heavyweight Robert De Niro in new movie the Comedian, according to a U.S. report.

The Raging Bull star will play an ageing, bitter stand-up comic in the new film and he was rumored to be re-teaming with his long time collaborator Martin Scorsese for the project.

However, the directing job has now gone to Penn, according to the New York Post's Page Six column, and production will start in the Big Apple next year (12).

Penn's last directorial offering was critically acclaimed 2007 movie Into the Wild.

Penn will next ben seen on the big screen in The Tree of Life  - which reunites him with Terrence Malick