Earlier this month, we reported that Sean Penn would be directing Crazy for the Storm, an adaptation of the Norman Ollestad memoir scripted by Will Fetters (The Lucky One).  Now, reports have Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) in talks to star.  Ollestad, at age 11, was the only survivor of a plane crash that killed his father, who would be played by Brolin.  His memoir centers on the skills his father taught him, skills that enabled him to survive the crash.  Fetters' script made the 2011 Black List and its easy to see what makes this story a compelling one.  Hit the jump for more on Crazy for the Storm.Variety reports that, although deals are not finalized for Penn or Brolin as of yet, the plan is to start production in the first quarter of 2013.  There was previously talk of Penn also starring in the Warner Bros. pic, but it looks like he will stick to the director's chair for this one.Here's a look at the synopsis from Ollestad's memoir (via Amazon):

Dad Said

Ollestad, we can do it all. . . .

Why do you make me do this?

Because it’s beautiful when it all comes together.

I don’t think it’s ever beautiful.

One day.

Never.

We’ll see, my father said. Vamanos.

From the age of three, Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing by the intense, charismatic father he both idolized and resented. While his friends were riding bikes, playing ball, and going to birthday parties, young Norman was whisked away in pursuit of wild and demanding adventures. Yet it were these exhilarating tests of skill that prepared “Boy Wonder,” as his father called him, to become a fearless champion–and ultimately saved his life.

Flying to a ski championship ceremony in February 1979, the chartered Cessna carrying Norman, his father, his father’s girlfriend, and the pilot crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains and was suspended at 8,200 feet, engulfed in a blizzard. “Dad and I were a team, and he was Superman,” Ollestad writes. But now Norman’s father was dead, and the devastated eleven-year-old had to descend the treacherous, icy mountain alone.

Set amid the spontaneous, uninhibited surf culture of Malibu and Mexico in the late 1970s, this riveting memoir, written in crisp Hemingwayesque prose, recalls Ollestad’s childhood and the magnetic man whose determination and love infuriated and inspired him–and also taught him to overcome the indomitable. As it illuminates the complicated bond between an extraordinary father and his son, Ollestad’s powerful and unforgettable true story offers remarkable insight for us all.