Sean Penn, fresh from his Oscar success with "Milk", is already scouring the Hollywood ether for the Next Big Thing. That could be, for all intents and purposes, "Fair Game" - the drama about the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, which has come together with Naomi Watts starring, "Mrs. & Mrs. Smith" helmer Doug Liman directing and William Pohlad's River Road producing.
Penn is edging ever closer to joining his "21 Grams" star Watts in the role of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Valerie's husband.
Wilson watched his wife's CIA status become compromised after he wrote a series of columns that accused the Bush Administration of manipulating intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Plame Wilson left the CIA in 2005 and she and her husband filed a civil suit against Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Cheney's ex-chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. While Rove and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage admitted they leaked her agency status to journalists, Libby was convicted of lying to a federal grand jury about his role in compromising her covert status.