Wait, who? While the name Frank Grillo might be not familiar yet, Hollywood has certainly taken a shine to the actor lately. Best known for his stint on the shortlived ABC series “The Gates” (or for his role as Jessup on the daytime soap “The Guiding Light“) Grillo has been earning strong buzz for his role as Joel Edgerton‘s trainer in the upcoming “Warrior” and has already knocked out a performance in Stephen Frears‘ “Lay The Favorite.” Well, Grillo is going to spend the rest of 2011 working on two high-profile pictures adding some serious meat to his scattered IMDB page.
First up, Grillo will join the massive ensemble being put together for Ruben Fleischer‘s “Gangster Squad.” The actor will play Ragan, a gangster who operates the continental wire service, and it will allow the actor to roll with folks like Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Anthony Mackie, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, Holt McCallany, Emma Stone and Robert Patrick which isn’t too bad at all. As you already know, the film is based the true story of a specialized L.A.P.D. unit set up in the ‘40s to fight the growing influence of the East Coast Mafia, in particular Mickey Cohen, a mogul who started as muscle for Al Capone in Chicago. Lensing will take place later this year, and while there is still somewhat surprisingly no release date pegged, we’d wager we’ll see it late in 2012.
Meanwhile, Grillo will take on a bigger supporting role in David Ayer‘s cop-drama “End Of Watch.” Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, Anna Kendrick and America Ferrera, plot details are thin on this one except that it will focus on the friendship between two longtime partners within the force, with Grillo slated as their commanding officer. And if Ayer’s numerous other cop dramas are anything to go by, one of these cops will likely have to deal with corruption or the thin line between good and bad and….man, we just hope Ayers is bringing something fresh to the table, because we’re getting sleepy just talking about this one. Shooting starts soon. [Variety]