Sean Penn and his wife of over a decade, Robin Wright Penn, will divorce, a rep for the famous couple told People. The Into the Wild director, 47, and his actress wife, 41, who began dating in the early 90’s, have two children, Hopper Jack, 14, and Dylan Frances, 16.

This news comes a day after actor Brendan Fraser, 39, and his wife of 9 years, Afton Smith, announced plans to legally end their marriage. A rep for the Mummy film franchise star said: “They continue to maintain a close and caring friendship.”

Directed by Sean Penn, Into the Wild also was nominated for performance by its overall cast, along with the Western 3:10 to Yuma, the crime sagas American Gangster and No Country for Old Men, and the musical Hairspray.

Guild awards will be presented Jan. 27 in a ceremony televised on TNT and TBS.

The Associated Press reports that unlike the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, which face turmoil caused by striking Hollywood writers, the guild awards look as though they can come off as planned. With actors showing strong solidarity on strike issues, SAG has reached an agreement with the Writers Guild of America for one of its members to write the ceremony.

Full list of nominees after the jump.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

GEORGE CLOONEY / Michael Clayton – “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS / Daniel Plainview – “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage)
RYAN GOSLING / Lars Lindstrom – “Lars And The Real Girl” (Sidney Kimmel Entertainment)
EMILE HIRSCH / Christopher McCandless– “Into The Wild” (Paramount Vantage)
VIGGO MORTENSEN / Nikolai – “Eastern Promises” (Focus Features)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

CATE BLANCHETT / Queen Elizabeth I – “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal Pictures)
JULIE CHRISTIE / Fiona – “Away From Her” (Lionsgate)
MARION COTILLARD / Edith Piaf – “La Vie En Rose” (Picturehouse)
ANGELINA JOLIE / Mariane Pearl – “A Mighty Heart” (Paramount Vantage)
ELLEN PAGE / Juno MacGuff – “Juno” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

CASEY AFFLECK / Robert Ford – “The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
JAVIER BARDEM / Anton Chigurh – “No Country For Old Men” (Miramax Films)
HAL HOLBROOK / Ron Franz – “Into The Wild” (Paramount Vantage)
TOMMY LEE JONES / Ed Tom Bell – “No Country For Old Men” (Miramax Films)
TOM WILKINSON / Arthur Edens – “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

CATE BLANCHETT / Jude – “I’m Not There” (The Weinstein Company)
RUBY DEE / Mama Lucas – “American Gangster” (Universal Pictures)
CATHERINE KEENER / Jan Burres – “Into The Wild” (Paramount Vantage)
AMY RYAN / Helene McCready – “Gone Baby Gone” (Miramax Films)
TILDA SWINTON / Karen Crowder – “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

3:10 TO YUMA (Lionsgate)

CHRISTIAN BALE / Dan Evans
RUSSELL CROWE / Ben Wade
PETER FONDA / Byron McElroy
GRETCHEN MOL / Alice Evans
DALLAS ROBERTS / Grayson Butterfield
VINESSA SHAW / Emmy Roberts
BEN FOSTER / Charlie Prince
ALAN TUDYK / Doc Potter
LOGAN LERMAN / Will Evans

AMERICAN GANGSTER (Universal Pictures)

ARMAND ASSANTE / Dominic Cattano
JOSH BROLIN / Detective Trupo
RUSSELL CROWE / Richie Roberts
RUBY DEE / Mama Lucas
CHIWETEL EJIOFOR / Huey Lucas
IDRIS ELBA / Tango
CUBA GOODING, JR. / Nicky Barnes
CARLA GUGINO / Laurie Roberts
JOHN HAWKES / Freddie Spearman
TED LEVINE / Lou Toback
JOE MORTON / Charlie Williams
LYMARI NADAL / Eva
JOHN ORTIZ / Javier J. Rivera
RZA / Moses Jones
YUL VAZQUEZ / Alfonse Abruzzo
DENZEL WASHINGTON / Frank Lucas

HAIRSPRAY (New Line Cinema)

NIKKI BLONSKY / Tracy Turnblad
AMANDA BYNES / Penny Pingleton
PAUL DOOLEY / Mr. Spritzer
ZAC EFRON / Link Larkin
ALLISON JANNEY / Prudy Pingleton
ELIJAH KELLEY / Seaweed
JAMES MARSDEN / Corny Collins
MICHELLE PFEIFFER / Velma Von Tussle
QUEEN LATIFAH / Motormouth Maybelle
BRITTANY SNOW / Amber Von Tussle
JERRY STILLER / Mr. French
JOHN TRAVOLTA / Edna Turnblad
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN / Wilbur Turnblad

INTO THE WILD (Paramount Vantage)

BRIAN DIERKER / Rainey
MARCIA GAY HARDEN / Billie McCandless
EMILE HIRSCH / Chris McCandless
HAL HOLBROOK / Ron Franz
WILLIAM HURT / Walt McCandless
CATHERINE KEENER / Jan Burres
JENA MALONE / Carine McCandless
KRISTEN STEWART / Tracy Tatro
VINCE VAUGHN / Wayne Westerberg

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Miramax Films)

JAVIER BARDEM / Anton Chigurh
JOSH BROLIN / Llewelyn Moss
GARRET DILLAHUNT / Wendell
TESS HARPER / Loretta Bell
WOODY HARRELSON / Carson Wells
TOMMY LEE JONES / Ed Tom Bell
KELLY MACDONALD / Carla Jean Moss

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

MICHAEL KEATON / James Jesus Angleton – “The Company (TNT)
KEVIN KLINE / Jacques – “As You Like It” (HBO)
OLIVER PLATT / George Steinbrenner – “The Bronx is Burning” (ESPN)
SAM SHEPARD / Frank Whiteley – “Ruffian” (ABC)
JOHN TURTURRO / Billy Martin – “The Bronx is Burning” (ESPN)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

ELLEN BURSTYN / Posey Benetto – “Mitch Albom’s For One More Day” (ABC)
DEBRA MESSING / Molly Kagan – “The Starter Wife” (USA)
ANNA PAQUIN / Elaine Goodale – “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” (HBO)
QUEEN LATIFAH / Ana – “Life Support “ (HBO)
VANESSA REDGRAVE / Woman – “The Fever” (HBO)
GENA ROWLANDS / Melissa Eisenbloom – “What If God Were the Sun?” (Lifetime)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

JAMES GANDOLFINI / Tony Soprano – “The Sopranos” (HBO)
MICHAEL C. HALL / Dexter Morgan – “Dexter” (Showtime)
JON HAMM / Don Draper – “Mad Men” (AMC)
HUGH LAURIE / Dr. Gregory House – “House” (FOX)
JAMES SPADER / Alan Shore – “Boston Legal” (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

GLENN CLOSE / Patty Hewes – “Damages” (FX)
EDIE FALCO / Carmela Soprano – “The Sopranos” (HBO)
SALLY FIELD / Nora Walker – “Brothers & Sisters” (ABC)
HOLLY HUNTER / Grace Hanadarko – “Saving Grace” (TNT)
KYRA SEDGWICK / Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson – “The Closer” (TNT)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

ALEC BALDWIN / Jack Donaghy – “30 Rock” (NBC)
STEVE CARELL / Michael Scott – “The Office” (NBC)
RICKY GERVAIS / Andy Millman – “Extras” (NBC)
JEREMY PIVEN / Ari Gold – “Entourage” (HBO)
TONY SHALHOUB / Adrian Monk – “Monk” (USA)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

CHRISTINA APPLEGATE / Samantha Newly – “Samantha Who?” (ABC)
AMERICA FERRERA / Betty Suarez – “Ugly Betty” (ABC)
TINA FEY / Liz Lemon – “30 Rock” (NBC)
MARY-LOUISE PARKER / Nancy Botwin – “Weeds” (Showtime)
VANESSA WILLIAMS / Wilhelmina Slater – “Ugly Betty” (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

BOSTON LEGAL (ABC)

RENE AUBERJONOIS / Paul Lewiston
CANDICE BERGEN / Shirley Schmidt
JULIE BOWEN / Denise Bauer
SAFFRON BURROWS / Lorraine Weller
CHRISTIAN CLEMENSON / Jerry Espenson
TARAJI P. HENSON / Whitney Rome
JOHN LARROQUETTE / Carl Sack
WILLIAM SHATNER / Denny Crane
JAMES SPADER / Alan Shore
TARA SUMMERS / Katie Lloyd
MARK VALLEY / Brad Chase
GARY ANTHONY WILLIAMS / Clarence/Clarice Bell
CONSTANCE ZIMMER / Claire Simms

THE CLOSER (TNT)

G.W. BAILEY / Det. Lt. Provenza
MICHAEL PAUL CHAN / Lt. Tao
RAYMOND CRUZ / Det. Sanchez
TONY DENISON / Lt. Andy Flynn
ROBERT GOSSETT / Commander Taylor
GINA RAVERA / Det. Irene Daniels
COREY REYNOLDS / Sgt. David Gabriel
KYRA SEDGWICK / Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson
J.K. SIMMONS / Asst. Police Chief Will Pope
JON TENNEY / FBI Agent Fritz Howard

GREY’S ANATOMY (ABC)

JUSTIN CHAMBERS / Alex Karev
ERIC DANE / Mark Sloan
PATRICK DEMPSEY / Derek Shepherd
KATHERINE HEIGL / Izzie Stevens
T.R. KNIGHT / George O’Malley
CHYLER LEIGH / Lexie Grey
SANDRA OH / Cristina Yang
JAMES PICKENS, JR. / Richard Webber
ELLEN POMPEO / Meredith Grey
SARA RAMIREZ / Callie Torres
ELIZABETH REASER / Jane Doe/Ava/Rebecca Pope
BROOKE SMITH / Erica Hahn
KATE WALSH / Addison Montgomery-Shepherd
ISAIAH WASHINGTON / Dr. Preston Burke
CHANDRA WILSON / Dr. Miranda Bailey

MAD MEN (AMC)

BRYAN BATT / Salvatore Romano
ANNE DUDEK / Francine Hanson
MICHAEL GLADIS / Paul Kinsey
JON HAMM / Don Draper
CHRISTINA HENDRICKS / Joan Holloway
JANUARY JONES / Betty Draper
VINCENT KARTHEISER / Pete Campbell
ROBERT MORSE / Bertram Cooper
ELISABETH MOSS / Peggy Olson
MAGGIE SIFF / Rachel Menken
JOHN SLATTERY / Roger Sterling
RICH SOMMER / Harry Crane
AARON STATON / Ken Cosgrove

THE SOPRANOS (HBO)

GREGORY ANTONACCI / Butch DeConcini
LORRAINE BRACCO / Dr. Jennifer Melfi
EDIE FALCO / Carmela Soprano
JAMES GANDOLFINI / Tony Soprano
DAN GRIMALDI / Patsy Parisi
ROBERT ILER / Anthony Soprano, Jr.
MICHAEL IMPERIOLI / Christopher Moltisanti
ARTHUR NASCARELLA / Carlo Gervasi
STEVEN R. SCHIRRIPA / Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri
MATT SERVITTO / Agent Dwight Harris
JAMIE-LYNN SIGLER / Meadow Soprano
TONY SIRICO / Paulie “Walnuts” Gaultieri
AIDA TURTURRO / Janice Soprano
STEVEN VAN ZANDT / Silvio Dante
FRANK VINCENT / Phil Leotardo

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

30 ROCK (NBC)

SCOTT ADSIT / Pete Hornberger
ALEC BALDWIN / Jack Donaghy
KATRINA BOWDEN / Cerie
TINA FEY / Liz Lemon
JUDAH FRIEDLANDER / Frank Rositano
JANE KRAKOWSKI / Jenna Maroney
JACK McBRAYER / Kenneth Parcell
TRACY MORGAN / Tracy Jordan
KEITH POWELL / Toofer
LONNY ROSS / Josh Girard

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC)

ANDREA BOWEN / Julie Mayer
RICHARDO A. CHAVIRA / Carlos Solis
MARCIA CROSS / Bree Van De Kamp Hodge
DANA DELANY / Katherine Mayfair
JAMES DENTON / Mike Delfino
NATHAN FILLION / Adam Mayfair
LINDSY FONSECA / Dylan Mayfair
TERI HATCHER / Susan Mayer
ZANE HUETT / Parker Scavo
FELICITY HUFFMAN / Lynette Scavo
KATHRYN JOOSTEN / Mrs. McCluskey
BRENT KINSMAN / Preston Scavo/Porter Scavo
SHANE KINSMAN / Porter Scavo/Preston Scavo
JOY LAUREN / Danielle Van De Kamp
EVA LONGORIA PARKER / Gabrielle Solis Lang
KYLE MacLACHLAN / Orson Hodge
SHAWN PYFROM / Andrew Van De Kamp
DOUG SAVANT / Tom Scavo
DOUGRAY SCOTT / Ian Hainsworth
NICOLETTE SHERIDAN / Edie Britt
JOHN SLATTERY / Victor Lang
BRENDA STRONG / Mary Alice Young

ENTOURAGE (HBO)

RHYS COIRO / Billy Walsh
KEVIN CONNOLLY / Eric Murphy
KEVIN DILLON / Johnny Drama
JERRY FERRARA / Turtle
ADRIAN GRENIER / Vincent Chase
REX LEE / Lloyd
JEREMY PIVEN / Ari Gold
PERREY REEVES / Mrs. Ari

THE OFFICE (NBC)

LESLIE DAVID BAKER / Stanley Hudson
BRIAN BAUMGARTNER / Kevin Malone
CREED BRATTON / Creed
STEVE CARELL / Michael Scott
JENNA FISCHER / Pam Beesly
KATE FLANNERY / Meredith Palmer
ED HELMS / Andrew Bernard
MINDY KALING / Kelly Kapoor
ANGELA KINSEY / Angela Martin
JOHN KRASINSKI / Jim Halpert
PAUL LIEBERSTEIN / Toby Flenderson
B.J. NOVAK / Ryan Howard
OSCAR NUÑEZ / Oscar Martinez
PHYLLIS SMITH / Phyllis Lapin
RAINN WILSON / Dwight Schrute

UGLY BETTY (ABC)

ALAN DALE / Bradford Meade
AMERICA FERRERA / Betty Suarez
CHRISTOPER GORHAM / Henry
MARK INDELICATO / Justin
ASHLEY JENSEN / Christina
JUDITH LIGHT / Claire Meade
ERIC MABIUS / Daniel Meade
BECKI NEWTON / Amanda
ANA ORTIZ / Hilda
TONY PLANA / Ignacio
REBECCA ROMIJN / Alexis
KEVIN SUSSMAN / Walter
MICHAEL URIE / Marc
VANESSA WILLIAMS / Wilhelmina Slater

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

300 (Warner Bros.)
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (Universal)
I AM LEGEND (Warner Bros.)
THE KINGDOM (Universal)
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series

24 (FOX)
HEROES (NBC)
LOST (ABC)
ROME (HBO)
THE UNIT (CBS)

Screen Actors Guild Awards 44th Annual Life Achievement Award

Charles Durning

The Observer's Rex Reed wrote about Into the Wild:

Juno racked up six nominations, while Atonement, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, Sweeney Todd and Hairspray each got five nominations apiece. The winners will be announced on Jan. 7 in Santa Monica.

Full list of nominees after the jump.

Best Picture
American Gangster
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
Juno
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
Sweeney Todd
There Will Be Blood

Best Actor
George Clooney - Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd
Ryan Gosling - Lars and the Real Girl
Emile Hirsch - Into the Wild
Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises

Best Actress
Amy Adams - Enchanted
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie - Away From Her
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose
Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart
Ellen Page - Juno

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Catherine Keener - Into the Wild
Vanessa Redgrave - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Best Acting Ensemble
Hairspray
Juno
No Country for Old Men
Sweeney Todd
Gone Baby Gone
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Best Director
Tim Burton - Sweeney Todd
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Sidney Lumet - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Sean Penn - Into the Wild
Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joe Wright - Atonement

Best Writer
Diablo Cody - Juno
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
Nancy Oliver - Lars and the Real Girl
Sean Penn - Into the Wild
Aaron Sorkin - Charlie Wilson's War

Best Animated Feature
Bee Movie
Beowulf
Persepolis
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie

Best Young Actor
Michael Cera - Juno
Michael Cera - Superbad
Freddie Highmore - August Rush
Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada - The Kite Runner
Edward Sanders - Sweeney Todd

Best Young Actress
Nikki Blonsky - Hairspray
Dakota Blue Richards - The Golden Compass
AnnaSophia Robb - Bridge to Terabithia
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement

Best Comedy Movie
Dan in Real Life
Hairspray
Juno
Knocked Up
Superbad

Best Family Film
August Rush
Enchanted
The Golden Compass
Hairspray
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Best Picture Made for Television
The Company
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Tin Man
The War

Best Foreign Language Film
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
La Vie en Rose
Lust, Caution
The Orphanage

Best Song
"Come So Far", Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley - Hairspray
"Do You Feel Me", Anthony Hamilton - American Gangster
"Falling Slowly", Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Jesse L. Martin and Cast - Once
"Guaranteed", Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild
"That's How You Know", Amy Adams - Enchanted

Best Composer
Marco Beltrami - 3:10 to Yuma
Alexandre Desplat - Lust, Caution
Clint Eastwood - Grace Is Gone
Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood
Dario Marianelli - Atonement
Alan Menken - Enchanted

Best Documentary
Darfur Now
In the Shadow of the Moon
The King of Kong
No End In Sight
Sharkwater
Sicko

Great World of Sound, a comedy about a bumbling Southern duo who traverse the country to discover unsigned "talent" for a record label, garnered the most nominations for Best Feature, Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor. In Craig Zobel's documentary-style debut, real performers auditioned without knowing it was actually a film shoot. With hidden cameras, the interaction was recorded between the lead actors and the unsuspecting musicians.

Into the Wild, Sean Penn's film adaptation of the Jon Krakauer book, was also nominated for Best Feature and a Breakthrough Actor nod for star Emile Hirsch.

Mr. Hirsch told Hillary Frey in the Observer:

The awards will be presented at Steiner Studios in New York on Tuesday, Nov. 27.

View the full list of nominees after the jump.

Best Feature

Great World of Sound

Craig Zobel, director; Melissa Palmer, David Gordon Green, Richard Wright, Craig Zobel, producers (Magnolia Pictures)

I’m Not There

Todd Haynes, director; Christine Vachon, James D. Stern, John Sloss, John Goldwyn, producers, (The Weinstein Company)

Into the Wild

Sean Penn, director; Sean Penn, Art Linson, Bill Pohlad, producers (Paramount Vantage & River Road Entertainment)

Margot at the Wedding

Noah Baumbach, director; Scott Rudin, producer (Paramount Vantage)

The Namesake

Mira Nair, director; Lydia Dean Pilcher, Mira Nair, producers (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Best Documentary

The Devil Came on Horseback

Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern, directors; Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg, Gretchen Wallace, Jane

Wells, producers (International Film Circuit)

Jimmy Carter Man from Plains

Jonathan Demme, director; Jonathan Demme, Neda Armian, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)

My Kid Could Paint That

Amir Bar-Lev, producer/director (Sony Pictures Classics)

Sicko

Michael Moore, director; Michael Moore, Meghan O’Hara, producers (The Weinstein Company)

Taxi to the Dark Side

Alex Gibney, director; Alex Gibney, Eva Orner, Susannah Shipman, producers (THINKFilm)

Best Ensemble Cast

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris, Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brian F. O’Byrne, Amy Ryan, Michael Shannon, Marisa Tomei (THINKFilm)

The Last Winter

Connie Britton, Kevin Corrigan, Zach Gilford, James LeGros, Ron Perlman (IFC First Take)

Margot at the Wedding

Jack Black, Flora Cross, Ciarán Hinds, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zane Pais, John Turturro (Paramount Vantage)

The Savages

Philip Bosco, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Talk to Me

Cedric the Entertainer, Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mike Epps, Vondie Curtis Hall, Taraji P. Henson, Martin Sheen (Focus Features)

Breakthrough Director

Lee Isaac Chung for Munyurangabo

Stephane Gauger for Owl and the Sparrow

Julia Loktev for Day Night Day Night (IFC First Take)

David Von Ancken for Seraphim Falls (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

Craig Zobel for Great World of Sound (Magnolia Pictures)

Breakthrough Actor

Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild (Paramount Vantage)

Kene Holliday in Great World of Sound (Magnolia Pictures)

Ellen Page in Juno (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Jess Weixler in Teeth (Roadside Attractions)

Luisa Williams in Day Night Day Night (IFC First Take)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You

August the First

Lanre Olabisi, director; Shawn Alexander, Gabriel “Swede” Sedgwick, Nicky Arzeu Akmal, Lanre

Olabisi, producers

Frownland

Ronald Bronstein, director; Marc Raybin, producer

Loren Cass

Chris Fuller, director; Chris Fuller, Frank Craft, Kayla Tabish, producers

Mississippi Chicken

John Fiege, director; John Fiege, Anita Grabowski, Victor Moyers, producers

Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa

Jeremy Stulberg & Randy Stulberg, directors; Eric Juhola, Jeremy Stulberg, Randy Stulberg.

Unlike the stars and starlets who parade through the tabloids each week, Mr. Hirsch wasn’t looking rough from too many nights in the clubs. It was work, plain and simple. He was in New York for two quick days after a stretch at the Toronto Film Festival, where he’d premiered and promoted his new film Into the Wild, and was leaving for Chicago right after lunch to tape an episode of Oprah with his director, Sean Penn. The travel and the talking were taking their toll. Cigarettes, he pointed out, weren’t helping.

Mr. Hirsch is a modest 5-foot-7 and compact, like a high-school point guard. He has glinty eyes that narrow in a flash to a teenager’s squint (he won’t hesitate to test an interviewer’s own knowledge of certain subjects), and his shoulders slouch just a little. But his boyishness extends beyond his looks. Over lunch, he demonstrated his one-eyebrow-raising, eye-crossing and tongue-curling skills (this last was borderline-pornographic); belted out a brief Sinatra imitation (“That’s why the chick is a tramp”); and enthused over magician David Blaine, who he’d met the night before. Mr. Hirsch was also impressed by the mini-grilled-cheese sandwiches that came with this reporter’s tomato soup. (“Wow! Look at that!”)

It’s this rare mix—the very adult dedication, the very youthful delight—that captured the eye of Mr. Penn, who first saw Mr. Hirsch in Lords of Dogtown, Catherine Hardwicke’s fictionalized version of Stacy Peralta’s skateboarding documentary Dogtown and Z-boys, which Mr. Penn had narrated. Mr. Hirsch played Jay Adams, an angry, intense young surfing and skating prodigy; over just about two hours, the quick-to grin Mr. Hirsch barely cracks a smile.

“He really struck me,” said Mr. Penn of Mr. Hirsch in Dogtown, via phone. (“If you hear some crunching, it’s just me getting a sugar rush out of Cracker Jacks,” he explained.) “Something in his eye, his physicality. All of it …”

When Mr. Penn first thought of making Into the Wild 10 years ago, he envisioned Leonardo DiCaprio, to whom Mr. Hirsch has been compared, in the lead role of Christopher McCandless. (“I must be like the shorter version. … I don’t know, he’s pretty tall! I wish they’d compared me to someone I could take in a fight!” joked Mr. Hirsch.) McCandless was a young, idealistic college graduate who ditched his privileged life and family to wander the West and ultimately perished at the hands of nature. Jon Krakauer wrote McCandless’s story first in an Outside magazine article and later expanded that article into the best-selling book Into the Wild.

McCandless, whom Mr. Hirsch resembles in stature, hitchhiked to Alaska in April of 1992, where he set up camp in an abandoned Fairbanks bus near Denali National Park. He managed to survive on a meager supply of rice and by foraging plants and hunting primarily small game for four months before getting sick, most likely from eating a poisonous seed pod. He died of starvation after his internal organs failed. Mr. Penn’s film doesn’t exactly celebrate McCandless—even in death, he remains a controversial figure among the adventuring crowd—but Into the Wild is a gorgeous paean to wanderlust, to the random kindness of strangers and to a landscape that, as Mr. Hirsch puts it, “doesn’t care about you.”

“Emile was a phenomenal thing to watch,” Mr. Penn said of his star. He never actually auditioned Mr. Hirsch—anyone familiar with his work in Dogtown or Nick Cassavetes’ Alpha Dog, in which he played an intense, brute drug dealer, would know he could play the role—and chose instead to meet with him periodically over a handful of months—for a quiet meal, for dinner with his family, for some good old-fashioned drinking. “My intention at the time was really to get some sense beyond whether or not he could act the part,” said Mr. Penn, “which I felt fairly quickly comfortable with.”

“I go out to drinks,” said Mr. Hirsch of one of his dates with Mr. Penn, “and meet Alejandro Iñárritu. Terrence Howard. Bono. You know. It’s crazy. We don’t really talk about the movie a whole lot. About four months go by and then he calls me [here he takes on a grave tone, imitating Mr. Penn]: ‘I finished the draft of the script and the part is yours … if you read it and like it. So come on up to SF and read it.’ So I got on a plane within a few hours. I stayed over at his place overnight and read the script, and it was just one of those fantastic moments in my life where I was really happy.”

“It was almost like time-lapse photography,” says Mr. Penn of Mr. Hirsch’s performance in Into the Wild, “because one of the demands on the actor cast to play that part was that he had to be on the cusp—I had to be able to have him go from boy to man on camera, and that was just the place Emile was in his life.”

“I can’t say enough about how … as young as he was, when we first met, and is today, this is a very talented actor,” said Mr. Penn. “But he, as a person—his desire to pursue this kind of thing at the level that he did it, in combination with being so gifted, makes it pretty exciting to see what tomorrow is going to bring with this guy.”

SITTING AT THE REGENCY, it’s difficult to see the man Mr. Hirsch portrays so heartbreakingly on film. As McCandless, he has an enthusiastic arrogance, a heady self-righteousness, not to mention a big, wild beard. In person, Mr. Hirsch’s natural intensity flickers on and off—he has a penetrating focus and a wicked smile—but he just seems so, well, young.

“This chicken noodle soup is really good!” he said, picking up his bowl and drinking the remains.

“We went to 31 different locations,” said Mr. Hirsch, cataloging his adventures as if he’s recounting a vacation. “We were in South Dakota cutting wheat on a combine; we camped out on the Grand Canyon for a week. We were doing Colorado river kayaking around, ended up doing the rapids …

“There were times when it was really, really, really hard,” he continued. “But there were times when Chris [McCandless] was on the road and it was really, really, really hard. I just knew that that was part of the commitment. I didn’t go into it thinking it was gonna be a ball. It’s amazing how you can go into it thinking it’s not really gonna be a ball, but you really don’t realize what that means until you’re doing it.”

“I think it’s important to be willing to suffer, if that’s what it takes,” said Mr. Penn of his expectations for his star.

Despite losing 40 pounds for the role (a feat necessary for the scenes toward the end of McCandless’s life), Mr. Hirsch doesn’t seem to have suffered at all, really. He shies from saying too much about his dieting (“I don’t really like to talk about the details of it because people get too wrapped up in it and it sort of trivializes it and it’s harder for people to enjoy the film,” he said), and tosses off the question like anyone could do it if they had to. And despite Mr. Penn having worked him to his physical limit, at times putting him in some danger, filming Into the Wild was nothing short of exhilarating.

“He’s a mixture of incredibly demanding, but so smart and so confident in you as a person, you don’t feel intimidated,” said Mr. Hirsch of Mr. Penn’s directorial talents. “It’s the calmest I’ve ever been on a set, ever. It’s extraordinary. You feel safe with him. And he just gives you this kind of freedom that I’ve never had before. I don’t know what my process is. I don’t have a process. But I just felt free.”

For his role as Speed in the much-anticipated Speed Racer, from The Matrix’s Wachowski brothers—expect this to be next spring’s huge movie—Mr. Hirsch basically had to do a 180. After rumoredly beating out indie darling Joseph Gordon-Levitt and little-man-on-campus Shia LeBeouf for the role, he shot the entire film, which is based on the 60’s anime cartoon, inside on a green screen in Berlin. For that film, two of his co-stars were chimpanzees named Kensey and Willy, who alternate (à la the Olsen twins in Full House) as Speed’s pet Chim-Chim. “It’s pretty amazing when you sit down for the first scene of a movie, take one, scene one, and they’re like, ‘Put Kensey in!’ and there’s a little chimp in overalls just rocking back and forth at the dinner table”—Mr. Hirsch rocked back and forth making a hoo-hoo chimp sound—“while you’re trying to read your lines.”

That was about the only taste of the great outdoors he got in Berlin. “I was really happy to be in nature so much, before being indoors for so long, that was for sure,” said Mr. Hirsch, who did manage to get some exercise by skateboarding around the set.

As we were about to say goodbye, Mr. Hirsch explained a magic trick from the night before that involves a quarter with his friend’s name written on it that Mr. Blaine magically curled inside his palm. “The quarter was bent in half,” he emphasizes. “That was like real magic.”

Did Mr. Blaine explain how he did it?

“Oh, I wouldn’t want him to,” said Mr. Hirsch. “There’s something about magic that I think is very similar to acting. You never want to reveal too much to people, because it’ll ruin it for them. You have to preserve people’s chance to watch, to enjoy it.”

At last year’s circus, Sean Penn was so bored and hostile that he ignored the city’s no-smoking ordinance and chain-puffed his way through his own press conference, costing the Sutton Place Hotel about $600 in fines. This year he was back at the same hotel with a wonderful film called Into the Wild that he wrote, directed and co-produced, and for which he even served as cinematographer during much of the arduous shooting schedule. In a euphoric mood, he refrained from attacking the Bush administration, avoided the subject of politics and only blasted the photographers twice for distracting him with their cameras. Instead of lighting up, he chewed on a glass of ice cubes and left the dubious award for Most Unpopular Star to Tommy Lee Jones, who scowled and cursed the press so much that one boldface headline crowned him “Mr. Crankypants.” Mr. Penn had good reason to be cordial, and so did the press. After 34 war films in 10 days, it was a pleasure to see Into the Wild, which arrives commercially this week at a crowded cinema near you.

Based on the best-selling book by Jon Krakauer, it’s the true story of 22-year-old Christopher McCandless (magnetically played by Emile Hirsch, the gifted and appealing young actor from The Emperor’s Club), an affluent, brilliant and rebellious young iconoclast who, after graduating from college in 1990, gave all of his possessions to charity, burned his money, renamed himself Alex Supertramp and headed into the wilderness seeking freedom—physical, mental and spiritual—from the greed, hate, crime, violence, injustice and materialism of mainstream society. Finding solace and companionship in books by Thoreau, Jack London and other naturalists, he turned his back on convention, and his search for knowledge and wisdom became a personal declaration of independence that took him as far from civilization as he could travel—hiking from the Grain Belt to the sea, paddling his way in a kayak down the rapids of the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon without a government permit, hopping a freight train across the border into Mexico, and arriving at last in the snowy wastes of Alaska, where peace reigns and only man is vile. Without electricity, plumbing, cellphones, heat or food, he battled the elements, learned how to hunt, fish and live on roots and berries, and in 1992, four months after reaching his destination, he died from starvation, frostbite and food poisoning in an abandoned bus from the Kansas City Transit System. After his remains were discovered by trappers a few weeks later, he became a legend among hippies, and the rusted bus where his body was found is now an Alaskan tourist attraction.

It’s a sad story that runs two and a half hours, and you already know going in that the protagonist is going to die in the end, so it is positively amazing that Into the Wild is so consistently fresh, riveting and profoundly moving. Its seismic impact must be credited to Mr. Penn’s passion for and enormous dedication to his material. He’s always been a first-rate actor, but he’s also become a director with vision and purpose; I’ve been a fan ever since his devastating and underappreciated Jack Nicholson film The Pledge. He saw something of his own restless nature in the story of Chris McCandless, and this film is sort of a tribute to idealism, from one nonconformist to another. He has chronicled the young man’s journey religiously, shooting in the actual locations and filling the screen with the array of fascinating characters McCandless met along the way and wrote about in his journals. Hal Holbrook as a surrogate father, Catherine Keener as an aging flower child in a desert commune and Vince Vaughn as a farmer who produces drugs are memorable, and Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt are perfect as the bewildered McCandless parents. Photographing whatever catches his fancy—a flight of seabirds, the sunset over a combine harvester in a field of wheat, the dim lights of Skid Row—and capturing every experience with a dangerous immediacy and a breathtaking beauty, Mr. Penn allows us to accompany McCandless on his trip into the wild every step of the way, as close to him as his backpack.

Here’s something else: As much as I admire Mr. Penn’s consuming drive to get this story on the screen, I also salute him for resisting the temptation to nominate McCandless for sainthood. God knows he was brave, but a hero? In addition to his fearlessness, he was also something of a selfish brat, never once making an effort to contact caring parents back home, driven to the lip of madness with worry, not knowing if he was dead or alive. In my opinion, he was thoughtless, arrogant, cruel in his ignorance of the needs and feelings of others and a train wreck waiting to happen. I applaud his spiritual quest, but heading into the wild without maps, compasses or matches is more than a little bit loopy. In the end, McCandless learns life’s most valuable lesson—that real happiness and personal fulfillment come not in alienation from the society you distrust, but through relationships with others. Tragically, McCandless was never able to share what he learned, but his story does teach us something vital about the human condition. He was a breed apart from what you would call average; his life is still haunting, and so is this film.

IN THE GRIM MORASS OF MOVIES arriving daily about abortion, incest, suicide, terrorism, the corruption of power and unendurable violence, a sweet romantic comedy like The Jane Austen Book Club was as bracing as a daiquiri. In a neurotic, geopolitically worn-out world of cellphones, computer screens, ugly SUV’s and gym obsession, a civilized group of five women and one shy man in suburban California form a club to read and discuss the complete works of Jane Austen. Writer Robin Swicord (Memoirs of a Geisha) is no Jane Austen, but in her directorial debut, she does a neat job of moving a talented ensemble through the paces as each club member introduces a new crisis similar to the ones in the novels under analysis. Bernadette (Kathy Baker), married six times, sees the group as an “antidote to life.” Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) has just been dumped by her husband (Jimmy Smits) for a bimbo after 20 years of marriage. Jocelyn (Maria Bello) is a lonely woman whose whole life revolved around a dog that just died. Grigg (Hugh Dancy) is a boyish computer geek who agrees to read the books—although he is more interested in science fiction—just so he can win over Jocelyn. Prudie (Emily Blunt, who stole every scene she was in as the haughty editorial assistant in The Devil Wears Prada) is a pretentious French teacher neglected by a husband who cares more about the NBA than his wife’s emotional security. Tackling a book a month, they undergo changes that parallel the Austen narratives, giving them paradox and pause. During Mansfield Park, Grigg gets pushed reluctantly into a date with Sylvia’s lesbian daughter, although he’s more interested in her mother and the grieving Jocelyn. By the time they reach Pride and Prejudice, Prudie is having an affair with one of her high-school students, and Sylvia thinks she’s interested in Grigg but realizes it’s her estranged husband she’s needed all along. Bernadette supervises them all like a character out of Virginia Woolf, not Jane Austen. In the end, even the husband who loves the NBA gives up sports and devours every word of Persuasion. Hugh Dancy (Evening) is prettier than all of the ladies put together. The ladies do their best to hold their own, but who can compete with the books under scrutiny? Slickly produced, endearingly performed, it’s a charming movie that is utterly conventional yet very entertaining. Target audience: middle-aged women who have heard of the author but only seen the movies. The moral is that you can find the solution to every problem in life in the works of Jane Austen. Can the Oprah Book Club on the complete works of Jacqueline Susann be far behind?

More escapist pleasure awaits you in Lars and the Real Girl, a dizzy, offbeat comedy starring the terrific Ryan Gosling as a catatonically shy man who falls in love with an anatomically correct blowup sex doll named Bianca. His family wants to have him committed, but in time the neighbors grow so fond of Bianca they regard her as one of the town’s most popular citizens. It’s a combination of Kids in the Hall comedy and a cautionary tale about not judging a book by its cover (or a toy by its bust size).

The anticipation I customarily reserve for every new Woody Allen film was dampened by Cassandra’s Dream. Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell play hopelessly irresponsible brothers who are forced to commit a murder to pay off their gambling debts, only to discover that one crime leads to another. Sinking deeper into criminal quicksand by the day, they land in the same boat as Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Match Point. Gloomy and grim, Cassandra’s Dream is named after the boat the brothers buy that they can’t afford, which triggers all the trouble that follows. It’s not Woody at his best. Since he moved to London to work, he seems fixated on Montgomery Clift’s moral dilemma in A Place in the Sun: To get ahead in life, you have to kill the thing you love to get the thing you love even more.

Movies that reflect the fear, pain and despair of the times we live in were abundant. Reservation Road is an emotionally wrenching study of grief following a hit-and-run accident that severely impacts the lives of the dead child’s parents (Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly) and the lawyer (Mark Ruffalo) they hire to find and prosecute the runaway driver. It’s a harrowing film that builds to a shattering climax in which nothing happens the way you think it will.

Rendition is a political thriller about the repercussions from the post 9/11 “extraordinary rendition” policy that grants the government the right to hold anyone suspected of terrorism without evidence, legal counsel or civil rights of any kind for as long as the C.I.A. sees fit. In a heartbreaking role light years away from Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon gives a mature and sympathetic performance as the pregnant wife of an Egyptian-American geologist on his way home to Chicago from a business conference in South Africa who is abducted, rerouted to Morocco, stripped naked and tortured. Rounding out a dazzling cast, Jake Gyllenhaal is the rookie C.I.A. agent recruited to watch the abuse, Peter Sarsgaard is the old college chum who tries to help his friend find her missing husband, and Meryl Streep is the terrifying, marble-cold C.I.A. official empowered to destroy lives with a single phone call. This is a chilling wake-up call to the crimes against humanity the U.S. government commits every day in all of our names. It is destined to be one of the most controversial films of the year.

After sitting through documentaries on Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia, Lou Reed in Berlin, a heavy metal band in Baghdad, an 80-something surfer with nine surfer children living in a one-room trailer, Nazi torturer Klaus Barbie, and Maria Callas, I knew it was time to throw in the towel when I headed for the exits halfway through a horror called The Pope’s Toilet, about a town in Uruguay awaiting a visit from the pope where an old man devotes his life (and about two hours of running time) to the construction of an outhouse so His Holiness will have a comfortable place to relieve himself.

On the day I left, they unveiled a film noir about German reality TV with a cocaine-snorting industrial saboteur who creates a hit show on which contestants do unspeakable things on the air with their semen. The title is Reclaim Your Brain. After Toronto, that’s exactly what I intend to do.