VENEZUELA - Oscar-winning actor and political activist Sean Penn may film a movie in Venezuela, according to the country's firebrand President Hugo Chavez.

Penn "told me was very interested in a film project ... that would most likely be shot in part in Venezuela," Chavez told state television on Wednesday after meeting the actor along with film producer Art Linson at the presidential palace.

Chavez said Penn, who he described as a "friend of just causes," hoped to make a movie based on the 1953 adventure novel "The Lost Steps" by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier, which takes place mostly in the lush forests of southeastern Venezuela.

The Oscar-winner, who received the award for Best Actor category in 2004 for "Mystic River" and in 2009 for "Harvey Milk," arrived here from Cuba, where he had reportedly sought an interview with its revolutionary icon Fidel Castro.