Like many people who worked on the movie, Sean Penn remembers exactly when he first discovered Into the Wild.

SEAN PENN, 47, screenwriter and director: In 1996 I walked into an open-air bookstore in Brentwood and I saw the book. Well, really I saw the bus on the cover, and I don't know why, but it intrigued me. I picked it up and took it home. By morning I had read it twice and wanted to make a movie out of it. That was the first thought I had. I called Jon Krakauer, and he told me that he had an agreement that any discussions of a movie would involve the family before he did anything with the rights. Initially I found myself competing with a bunch of people who had gotten there before me.

BILLIE McCANDLESS, 62, Chris's mother: We were immediately inundated with producers and directors from everywhere. We sent everyone through our attorney first. Eventually we narrowed the list of people to five and called some meetings.

WALT McCANDLESS, 71, Chris's father: Most of the people just struck out. One group said, "We're gonna change the story and have Carine go look for Chris." And that was instant death.

CARINE McCANDLESS, 36, Chris's sister: People tried to impress us with power and big names. But it wasn't about money. Sean Penn was clearly from the beginning someone who was more interested in a true accounting than in what would sell the most tickets.

BILLIE: Walt designed a little rating chart which we all filled out individually as we met with people. It turned out that all of us picked Sean Penn. It was just everybody's gut feeling.

PENN: I made a couple trips to see the family. And then when I was on my way to the airport to make what would have been my final trip, Billie had a dream that her son didn't want a movie made. I told her that if I didn't respect dreams, then I wouldn't be making movies. And we pretty much left it at that. That was nine years ago.

WILLIAM POHLAD, 51, producer: Sean kept in touch with the family and maintained a line of communication. He said he respected their decision but, if they ever changed their minds, he would still be interested.

CARINE: Sean politely kept his foot in the door for ten years. That's the best way I can put it.

PENN: I think we exchanged a few Christmas cards over the years. I had never given up on it. I believed that at some point or another they would make a decision to do it.

BILLIE: [In 2005], Jon found out that things were heating up again. Somebody, not Sean, was planning to do the movie anyway, without the family or Jon's participation. If we ever did want to do something, now was the time.

CARINE: Sean came out to my house in Virginia. Jon and my parents were there, and we all knew we were gonna make a final decision after that meeting. I have a big backyard, and we sat outside for a while. We made dinner together. It was a chance to ask all the hard questions.

WALT: Sean said, "I will devote two years of my life to this and not take on any other projects." And he did.

PENN: I wrote a new draft very fast once the time came. Usually you write something and it takes a year to get the financing. With this case, it was a couple of weeks and we were starting to talk about start dates.