While that rumored appearance at Cannes never happened (and given the mixed reception to the similar period shoot-em-up "Lawless," perhaps it was a good move), the buzz is starting to build on Warner Bros' "Gangster Squad." A trailer landed a few weeks back, and soon after it was given a September 7th release date, where it'll compete directly with John Hillcoat's film for the late summer/early fall audience that saw films like "The Town" and "Contagion" become hits in the last few years.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer ("Zombieland," "30 Minutes Or Less"), the film, about an elite LAPD unit assigned with taking down mobster Mickey Cohen in the 1940s, the film has an all-star cast, featuring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Mackie, Emma Stone and Sean Penn as Cohen, and Penn is front and center in a new batch of images from the film that HeyUGuys have got their hands on, blazing away on a tommy gun. We also get new looks at Brolin and Gosling as the lead cops, and Emma Stone as Penn's moll who strikes up a dangerous romance with Gosling's character.
While we weren't overly enamored with some of the stylistic tics of the trailer (CGI-assisted camera shots, speed-ramping), the actors involved are first-rate, and Will Beall's script is very entertaining, albeit more "The Untouchables" than "L.A. Confidential. 'Gangster Squad' hits theaters on September 7th, so we'll find out how it turns out around then.
