Sean Penn has agreed to direct Into the Wild.

The project is based on Penn's adaptation of Jon Krakauer's bestseller.

Emile Hirsch will portray Christopher McCandless, who graduated from college in 1992, abandoned his possessions and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness and return to nature.

He died four months later in an abandoned bus at a remote campsite reports Variety.

Penn hasn't directed a film since 2001's The Pledge.

Source: Press Release