Tales From The Gangster Squad is currently a top priority at Warner Bros. After settling on a director (Ruben Fleischer), the studio is starting to look towards casting and the two leading men they have in mind are Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling. Deadline tells us that offers have been made to the two stars. Paul Lieberman’s series of L.A. Times article will serve as the basis for the film and Will Beall, a former cop turned novelist will adapt.
The film would have Penn going up against Gosling as it tells the story of “a specialized L.A.P.D. unit set up in the ‘40s to fight the growing influence of the East Coast Mafia, namely that from infamous gangster Mickey Cohen, a mogul who started as muscle for Al Capone in Chicago.” Penn would play Cohen and Gosling would play one of the cops.
This would undoubtedly be a dream cast but who knows if Gosling and Penn will sign on. Penn is quite picky about the roles he takes and Gosling has a lot on his plate, especially with Logan’s Run and his upcoming film with Derek Cianfrance, The Place Beyond The Pines. So like I said, who knows if it would work out. But either way, Warner Bros. clearly wants a strong cast for this one and they clearly have a lot of faith in the project. It does sound interesting and if they can get the right cast, I think it could work out really well.
