All the King's Men: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian will direct All the King's Men an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a populist Southern politician.

Sean Penn, who scored the best actor Oscar this year for Mystic River, is being sought to play the role of Willie Stark, which earned Broderick Crawford an Oscar in the 1949 film version of the book. Phoenix Pictures is producing the project for Columbia Pictures.

The production is aiming for a September shoot in New Orleans.