Sean Penn may lighten up a little bit and co-star in The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

As every other article about The Three Stooges has reminded us, there was once a time when Sean Penn was attached to star in that film—a fantastical what-if notable not only for the oddity of having Sean Penn (and possibly Benicio Del Toro and Jim Carrey) playing the Three Stooges, but having the modern-day Sean Penn do anything remotely funny. But according to Deadline, Penn may go his bizarre turn in This Must Be The Place one better and take a vacation from starring in somber dramas in which his face sags like a deflated basketball by taking a "small but pivotal supporting role" in Ben Stiller's upcoming The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. The Stiller-directed, Stiller-starring remake of the 1947 comedy already co-stars several people who are more recently funny like Kristen Wiig, Patton Oswalt, and Adam Scott, and its wacky premise of a timid magazine photo editor who escapes into a rich fantasy life all but demands that Penn similarly lighten up a little, at least in context. That is, of course, unless Penn's role is to play Sean Penn, who brings Stiller's flights of fancy to a crashing halt by reminding him of all the work still to be done in Haiti.