From "Public Enemy" and "Little Caesar" to "Goodfellas" and "L.A. Confidential," Warner Bros. has always been the flagship studio for crime movies. Now they're passing the baton, or the Tommy gun, off to a new generation of filmmakers.
Director Ruben Fleischer of "Zombieland" fame is entering gangland for Warner's just-greenlit 1940s fedoras-and-firearms saga, "Gangster Squad," and he's nabbed some serious star power for his arsenal.
According to Deadline, the studio has offered the plum role of flashy mobster Mickey Cohen to Mr. Intensity himself, Sean Penn. The two-time Oscar-winner will play the L.A. crimelord who was a prominent member of the Jewish Mafia for three decades, including a stint in the '40s when he helped Bugsy Siegel establish Las Vegas.
As Cohen's nemesis on the side of law and order could be Ryan Gosling, playing one of two policemen tasked with bringing the charismatic-but-violent man down, and presumably jotting down incriminating evidence in his notebook. No word yet on who the other copper will be, but the teamup of Penn and Gosling should be electric as they're considered to be one of, if not THE, best actors of their respective generations.
"Gangster Squad" is being compared to Brian DePalma's classic period gangster pic "The Untouchables," and like Al Capone in that film Cohen was eventually brought down on the technicality of tax evasion as opposed to the numerous high-profile crimes he was famous for. Sneaky!