Sean Penn to receive Best Director award for Into the Wild  
Saturday, October 27th, 2007

Sean Penn will be honored with the Best Director award for his latest movie
"Into the Wild," at the 19th Palm Springs Film Festival in California in January
2008.

The award will be given at the gala in a ceremony hosted by Entertaiment Tonight's (gross, which is trashy and owned by CBS, who we boycott) Mary Hart at the Palm Springs Convention Center on January 5th.

And I cannot wait to see this movie.  It's in theatres now, go see it this weekend! - it's an amazing story.  From their website (which is like a movie itself):

"Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, 22 year-old Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure.  What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people.  Was Christopher McCandless a heroic adventurer or a naive idealist, a rebellious 1990s Thoreau or another lost American son, a fearless risk-taker or a tragic figure who wrestled with the precious balance between man and nature?
...
In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do East Coast family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wildnerness north of Mt. McKinley.  Four months later his decomposed body was found by a party of moose hunters."

I hope Sean Penn is okay - TMZ is reporting that he lost a trailer in the fire in Malibu.  I'm hoping all is well and good and he will be receiving that award in January, because I love when he gives speeches!  He never hesitates to speak his mind.

Into the Wild is based on the 1996 book by Jon Krakauer.  Penn says it took Walt and Billie McCandless, Christopher's parents, about a decade to allow him to film the story.

"There was a 10-year period before they allowed me to make a movie of the story...Stubbornness has been my greatest friend," Penn said.

   

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