Awesome Look at Sean Penn and Josh Brolin in ‘Gangster Squad’ + More Story Details
Director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) recently spoke with EW about his highly anticipated next film Gangster Squad and an awesome picture has just been released with stars Sean Penn and Josh Brolin squaring off against each other.
Adapted by Will Beall (Castle), this crime-thriller will revolve around the so-called “Gangster Squad”, a Los Angeles Police task force fighting to keep East Coast Mafia types such as gangster Mickey Cohen (Penn) out of the city during the 1940s and 50s. Brolin plays the head of this task force while Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Nick Nolte and Holt McCallany are also part of the star-studded cast.
In his interview with EW, Fleischer revealed more about what the story will be about:
“O’Mara (Josh Brolin), our lead character, has just come back from fighting the Nazis with all these ideals after seeing America at its greatest. And he’s come home and there’s a gangster running his city. While he was gone, Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) took over and he turned the streets of L.A. into a battle zone. In our story, O’ Mara takes the lead of the Gangster Squad, a vigilante police force that fights the gangsters on their own terms, and the battle between them is for the future of Los Angeles: whether it’s going to become corrupt and run by this bunch of gangsters or these guys who fought for these values and want L.A. to be the shining beacon on the west coast that it was always intended to be.”
Speaking of the picture above, he said:
“Ultimately it’s the story between these two guys. It’s Josh and Sean who face off at the end after a big gun battle between the Gangster Squad and Cohen and his men. O’Mara catches up to Cohen and Sean mockingly says, “Okay, copper, take me in.”
Fleischer also talks a bit about Gosling’s character:
“Ryan’s character also went to war, but when he came back, he was a little disillusioned. So he’s more on the fence, hanging out in nightclubs and hanging out with guys who might be gangsters. He’s less clear on where he stands in terms of standing up against Mickey Cohen. But he finds himself in a love triangle with Cohen and Emma Stone’s femme fatale character.”
On reuniting with Emma Stone after working with her on Zombieland:
“There’s a reason why I was very, very eager to work with her again. She’s simply the best. Everyone as soon as they met her was taken by how cool and smart and funny and talented she is. I think she really transforms in this movie from being that sort of teenager or college kid that we’ve seen in movies into a real woman.”
I absolutely can’t wait to see this movie. It just sounds like it’s going to be an incredible crime-thriller much like one of my favorite film of all-time, LA Confidential.
Make sure to read the full interview on EW. Gangster Squad opens October 19th, 2012.
20 Comments
This looks good. I am pretty excited about this film… fantastic cast. Also, I love The Gos too much in this avatar.
Looks like you will be in for a treat with the Gos
Great cast but I’m not entirely convinced Fleisher is the right person to direct this movie. This is only his second movie and Zombieland was no where near this big of a production.
Yea I wasn’t the biggest fan of Zombieland which I thought was quite overrated and not all that funny. Hopefully, this will turn out great though.
I love the 50′s look! I can’t wait to see all these handsome actors wearing 50′s attires…
Yea it’s a great look
The film looks star-studded with a certain L.A. Confidential feel to it but I don’t know why Fleisher is doing this since it seems totally different from the other two films he’s done already. Still, looks good so far.
True but let’s see what he has in store. I can definitely see why one would be worried given that he has only made two relatively small-scale comedies but I’m always willing to let someone prove himself.
The film is in my alternate list of the 50 films of 2012 to look forward to but not the top 25.
Wow your top 25 must be insane if this isn’t in it
Nice job by him giving us such a big scene and a quote away.
Ahah yea… and let’s just say I left the next sentence or two off that quote because they are completely spoiler-ific
I’m stoked for this movie! With all the superhero movies and mindless robot flicks, we could use a dark crime movie like this one.
Most definitely GM!
Sorry to be a gloomy gus but I’m not excited about this cast at all. I know I’m in the minority on that one.
Sean Penn? Josh Brolin?? The Gos??? Emma Stone???? Anthony Mackie????????????
Love gangster films and love this cast so I am in… but, is it me, or did they just give away the ending with the whole “take me in, copper” part?
Yea a little bit lol but I guess he trusts how good this is going to turn out
This film is so up my street. I love the era, I love the cast…. whats the worst that can happen?
The pictures are mostly useless, though we can talk more about the first than the second; what’s valuable here is Fleischer’s comments on the story, the production, and his cast. Sounds like working with these people really energized him, which can only mean good things for the project.
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