The cast for Ruben Fleischer’s crime drama about the hunt for the infamous gangster Mickey Cohen has a new cast member as Deadline are reporting that Giovanni Ribisi has signed up to star in The Gangster Squad.
He will play one of the team after Cohen, played here by Sean Penn, and joins Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin in Fleischer’s film, with man of the moment Bryan Cranston, Michael Pena and Anthony Mackie in support. The director has the very successful Zombieland under his belt and his pizza-boy hijacking comedy 30 Minutes or Less is due out in the next couple of months. The Gangster Squad is a definite change of pace but it’s doubtful that a comedic look at the 40s and 50s American gangster era is on the cards and it’s good to see a change of scene for a decent director.
The film is based on a series of L.A. Times articles detailing the battle to keep Cohen’s rapidly expanding criminal empire from expanding. Will Beall wrote the script and he is also credited on the Nicolas Winding Refn remake of Logan’s Run, although Alex Garland is the man credited as the main writer.The Gangster Squad is due out in 2013.
