Sean Penn is heading back to the waves.
The actor, who played the instantly legendary fictional surfer Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, is in negotiations to tackle real surfing icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz. According to Variety, Penn will produce a film based on Paskowitz and his family and is eyeing the untitled project as a starring vehicle.
Alan and Gabe Polsky are also on board to produce.
For the past two decades, producers from Matt Weaver to Graydon Carter have tried unsuccessfully to secure the life rights to the now 89-year-old Paskowitz. The patriarch finally gave his blessing to the Polskys once they were able to attach Penn to the project, says Variety.
Paul Feldsher will write the screenplay.
Paskowitz left behind a medical practice in the late ‘50s and took to the road in a camper with his wife and nine children before founding the first surf camp in the continental U.S. The Paskowitz clan’s nomadic beach existence was recently the subject of Doug Pray’s documentary Surfwise.
