FIRST LOOK

First Look: Sean Penn & Josh Brolin in Crime Movie 'Gangster Squad'

by Alex Billington
December 9, 2011
Source: EW.com

Time to meet the "Gangster Squad". One of them. EW.com has posted the first official photo from Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad, his upcoming 40s-50s crime drama about the LAPD squad assigned to clean up the Mobsters hitting the town, starring Josh Brolin and Sean Penn. The large-scale Warner Bros project has been shooting all over Los Angeles the last few months, turning iconic local locations back in time. Last night I stumbled across their set on Hollywood Blvd., the famous Chinese Theater completely dressed for the film, and watched as they filmed a gunfight outside the theater. This is going to be awesome!

Here's the first new photo of Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen (mobster), and Josh Brolin as John O'Mara (cop), from EW. The cast also includes Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña and Anthony Mackie, and while many have popped up in set photos online, we haven't seen them in any official photos yet. I wish we had a higher res version of this, but it's all we've got for now! Take a look:

While I couldn't snap any truly great photos of the actors or the set last night on Hollywood Blvd., I did take some quick shots of the vintage cars they had on display and the general look of the set. The entire street was decorated period to look like the 40-50s, with a Christmas setting (perfectly timed anyway). A bunch of guys come running out of the famous Chinese Theater and start shooting guns, like there was a fight inside as well. It looked badass and exciting for even a very brief gunfight scene! Here's a few of my own photos:

From the interview with director Ruben Fleischer on EW is a better plot synopsis: "O'Mara (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 (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." This just sounds like it's going to be fantastic, and it looks that way, too!

Ruben is still shooting Gangster Squad all over Los Angeles as we speak, but Warner Bros has it scheduled for release starting on October 19th late next year. Hope we see even more photos (or even a trailer) soon.

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