First Look at Sean Penn in 'The Gunman'

It's not often that Sean Penn ventures into the world of action movies, preferring to put his acting chops to the test in prestige pictures for the most part. But recently it seems he's ready to take his career to a different level, recently starring in the hard-boiled crime flick, Gangster Squad. And while that film was pretty terrible by most accounts, that doesn't seem to be the case for The Gunman, and which has just dropped the first official image.

Based on Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel The Prone Gunman, and featuring a stellar cast that includes Idris Elba, Javier Bardem, Sam Riley, Ray Winstone, and Jasmine Trinca, the film looks like it could be for Penn what Taken was to Liam Neeson. He plays Martin Terrier, an international operative who wants to exit the business and be with the woman he loves, but his bosses aren't too happy with his decision and force him to go on the run across Europe.

Pierre Morel, who also directed Taken, is at the helm and producer Joel Silver thinks he may have a similar franchise on his hands. He told USA Today...

"It wouldn't be lying if I said 'Wouldn't it be nice for this to become a franchise?' But we have to make the first one first, and we have to make it great."

So Sean Penn...action star? The Gunman hits theaters in 2014.