Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch and James Franco are in final negotiations to appear opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant’s biopic Milk.
The Focus Features/Groundswell Productions film stars Penn as Harvey Milk, the country’s first openly gay elected official, a San Francisco city supervisor who was assassinated in 1978.
Brolin will play Dan White, the rival politician and supervisor who shot Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone to death at City Hall. Hirsch has been cast as gay rights activist Cleve Jones, an intern and close ally of Milk’s, who went on to found the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Franco will play Scott Smith, Milk’s lover and campaign manager.
Principal photography is set to begin in January in San Francisco.
