USA Today

Sean Penn is the latest aged actor getting in on the old man action film bandwagon. This is our first look at him as a hitman who wants out of the game in the upcoming new thriller The Gunman. It also stars Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, and Ray Winstone. When talking about the film, Penn wouldn't really admit that he was making an action film,

"Here's the funny thing. Calling it an 'action film' is kind of like calling Meryl Streep a sexy blonde chick. She is. But that really doesn't tell the story of what she is at all."I don't separate this in my mind from anything else I have done. It's a very human story that deals with the same things exploited in action films, like warfare."

But it sounds like it's still an action thriller. Nothing he can say is going to change that.