In a story from The Hollywood Reporter, Sean Penn is talks to star in Genius, the story of literary editor Max Perkins.

Bill Pohlad will direct this project. This project has been close to getting made before, with Lawrence Kasdan attached to direct at one point. Pohlad produced and financed Into the Wild, which was directed by Penn in 2007.

The last movie Pohlad directed was 1990's Old Explorers starring José Ferrer and James Whitmore. He also has produced and financed films through his company River Road Entertainment.

John Logan adapted A. Scott Berg's National Book Award-winning 2008 biography, "Max Perkins: Editor of Genius". The story follows Perkins, "the fedora-wearing eccentric editor-in-chief at New York publishing house Scribner, where he oversaw the release of works by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway."

The film would focus on Perkins' relationship with a young Thomas Wolfe.