Paramount Classics has signed Sean Penn to direct Alaska adventure "Into the Wild," with Emile Hirsch ("The Lords of Dogtown") to star reports Variety.

Based on Penn's adaptation of Jon Krakauer's bestseller, 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.

This directing gig is the first for Penn since 2001's "The Pledge". He last appeared in "The Interpreter" and stars next in Sony's "All the King's Men".