The industry has been buzzing for the past several months over a script called Gangster Squad from former Los Angeles homicide detective-turned-screenwriter Will Beall. Director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) joined the project back in December, but the first bit of solid casting news didn’t arrive until today when Deadline‘s Mike Fleming reported Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin have been sent offers for each of the three major roles.
Penn’s role, which is said to be the juiciest of the bunch (Fleming compares it to Robert De Niro’s turn as Al Capone in The Untouchables), is that of Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen. Gosling and Brolin would play the two cops looking to take him down.
Cohen (pictured) was a former boxer who became an associate of Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. While charismatic, he was also considered an ultra-violent sociopath. He was most notably previously played by Harvey Keitel in 1991’s Bugsy alongside Warren Beatty (Siegel) and Ben Kingsley (Lanksy).
Penn is also involved in talks to star alongside Christian Bale in the Afghanistan-set war drama The Last Photograph for director Niels Arden Oplev (the Swedish The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), but if he does commit the rest should fall into place. Gosling recently turned down an offer for the title role in Disney’s The Lone Ranger alongside Johnny Depp. Could this be the reason why?
Beall’s script was based on the “Tales From the Gangster Squad” series of Los Angeles Times articles by Paul Lieberman (you can read all seven right here). Since delivering the script for Gangster Squad, Beall has been hired to rewrite the Gosling-led Logan’s Run remake for director Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson) and a Lethal Weapon reboot.
With production expected to begin this fall, I’m not sure if we’ll see Gangster Squad in 2012 or 2013. But considering the pedigree and subject matter, it will place high on many “most anticipated” lists wherever it lands. Mine included.
