Variety reports that two-time Oscar winner, Sean Penn, and previous Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin are in talks to star in Ruben Fleishcer’s Gangster Squad for Warner Bros.  No further details are available, but it’s said that Penn’s deal was the furthest along and that the others were influenced by whether or not he’d be in the film.  Will Beall (Logan’s Run remake) scripted the project, which centers on a chronicle of the LAPD’s fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s. Penn was most recently seen in Fair Game and will next show up in Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life.  Gosling has Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive upcoming and Brolin is currently filming MIIIB.

On a total side note, just caught Jonah Hex for the first time recently.  What a pile.