LOS ANGELES — Sean Penn will direct actors Robert De Niro and Kristen Wiig in “The Comedian,” a drama about a washed up funnyman, Deadline reported Thursday.

De Niro, 68, will play the lead as an aging comedian whose flagging career is further sidelined after he assaults an audience member with a microphone.

While he serves his community service sentence for the offense, he encounters a free-spirited lady friend, played by “SNL” star Wiig, who turns his life upside down.

Penn, a two-time Academy Award winner who also directed “Into the Wild” in 2007, is expected to begin filming in Spring of 2012.