Knowing Mel Gibson’s penchant for playing heroes (Braveheart, The Patriot) and Sean Penn’s for kicking ass when the times call for it (The Gunman), we were expecting a project that involved a little more, well, action. At that, who knows? This could be very interesting.

Penn is in talks to join Gibson’s The Professor and the Madman, which the actor-director bought the rights to some years after directing Braveheart.

That means this project has been in the works for a whopping twenty-year period.

The Professor and the Madman, based on the bestseller by Simon Winchester, relates the story of Professor James Murray, who compiled the Oxford English Dictionary in 1857. Apocalypto writer Farhad Safinia is signed up to write the screenplay and direct the drama.

Gibson plays Murray while Penn is in talks to portray Dr William Chester Minor, who submitted more than 10,000 entries while he was an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

Aside from these names, another big strength for the production is its backing company Voltage Pictures – the firm was behind Oscar winners The Hurt Locker and Dallas Buyers Club.

Shooting is scheduled to start in October.

This would mark the first time Gibson and Penn have worked together.

It’s the collaboration we never knew we were waiting for, and with such a cast and crew, it could definitely be a runner for awards season.

Via Hollywood Reporter