Mel Gibson and Sean Penn to play creators of Oxford English Dictionary

Mel Gibson and Sean Penn are set to star in Professor and the Madman, a real-life drama about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Later this year Gibson will appear in front of the camera in the revenge thriller Blood Father and behind for the second world war drama Hacksaw Ridge.

Penn is in negotiations to play retired army surgeon W C Minor, who submitted more than 10,000 entries to Murray while imprisoned at an asylum for the criminally insane.