Behold:
-Joey's Two Cents: Well, that certainly appears to be...something. Thoughts?
Showing posts with label Sean Penn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sean Penn. Show all posts
Anthony Mackie is joining Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, and Josh Brolin in Gangster Squad!
indieWIRE has the story:God damn if Ruben Fleischer doesn’t keep finding new ways to makes us excited about “Gangster Squad.” The “Zombieland” director is moving into more serious territory with Warner Brothers’ big-budget period actioner, and has assembled a mouth-watering cast of awards bait, with Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and “Crash” star Michael Peña all confirmed for the film, written by ex-cop Will Beall, based on a series of L.A. Times articles about an L.A.P.D unit in the 1940s.
Now, one other name thought to be circling the project is officially locked in, with Variety reporting that fast-rising actor Anthony Mackie, last seen in “The Adjustment Bureau,” has now signed on to join Penn, Brolin, Gosling and Peña. The actor was rumored to be being courted for the film six weeks back, but it looks like things are now official: the actor will play an ex-cop, Rocky Washington, ‘the Sheriff of Central Avenue,’ the first black lieutenant in the LAPD who went back to be a beat cop, only to be recruited by Gosling and Brolin’s characters for their elite unite, which aims to take down legendary mobster Mickey Cohen (Penn).
Mackie’s been on the up ever since his scorching performance in Kathryn Bigelow‘s Oscar-winning film: He might have lost out to ‘Hurt Locker’ co-star Jeremy Renner for the lead in “The Bourne Legacy,” but he’ll appear later in the year in the Anna Faris comedy “What’s Your Number” and the Hugh Jackman robot boxing flick “Real Steel,” while next year will bring high profile supporting gigs in the Sam Worthington vehicle “Man on a Ledge” and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”
What’s unclear is what signing on to “Gangster Squad” means for his involvement in the Brad Pitt starrer “World War Z”—it was reported at the same time as his involvement in Fleischer’s film that he was also mulling an offer for the zombie epic. That film starts shooting shortly, while “Gangster Squad” doesn’t roll til September, so it’s conceivable that they he could do both, if the scheduling works out.
Either way, his presence in “Gangster Squad” can only be a boon for a film that’s already got one of the most promising casts of 2013, a director on the rise and a much-acclaimed script. Considering the success of similarly themed video game “L.A. Noire,” Warners must be clearing space for all the money they’re going to make on this one, and fingers crossed, some critical plaudits as well.
-Joey's Two Cents: This could actually be slowly morphing into a prestige film for the WB...thoughts?Sean Penn to potentially join Christian Bale in The Last Photograph...
...based on a story idea by Zack Snyder. Here's the article from Deadline:Sean Penn is circling The Last Photograph, and I'm told he plans to join Christian Bale in the Kurt Johnstad-scripted drama that will be directed by Niels Arden Oplev, director of the Swedish The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The film is moving from Warner Bros, and is in negotiations to move to Dark Castle, whose Joel Silver and Andrew Rona would board the project as producers and put up the financing. Zack and Deborah Snyder are producing with Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari.
The film came from an idea by Snyder, who set it up at Warner Bros with his wife and Nunnari after they all worked together on 300. Set in Afghanistan, it is a timely drama that has elements of The Searchers and Taken. Bale plays a war correspondent who witnesses and is the only survivor of an attack on a group of Americans. Penn is circling the role of a retired ex-special ops soldier who comes to the scene determined to free a family member who has been kidnapped. The journalist agrees to help identify the kidnappers and travel the rough terrain to find them, in exchange for the story. The road brings them in confrontation with tribal regions of Afghanistan, and none of the diplomats will help.
The plan is to put the picture into production in 2012, after Bale completes The Dark Knight Rises. Penn had been courted by Warner Bros for both the Superman pic Man of Steel and the Ruben Fleischer-directed Gangster Squad. He has turned down both films, I'm told. Despite courting Penn heavily for those, Warner Bros had already been moving toward not funding The Last Photograph, and didn't alter that when Penn made it clear he was interested in the war film. Dark Castle is working on a deal as we speak, with Warner Bros distributing the picture. The company is coming off the Liam Neeson-starrer Unknown, a $30 million film that grossed $140 million worldwide. Penn most recently starred in the Paolo Sorrentino-directed This Must Be The Place, which is currently being shopped for North American distribution. There, he plays a bored, retired rock star who tries to find his father's killer, an ex-Nazi war criminal hiding in the U.S. CAA reps Penn.
-Joey's Two Cents: It sounds like an interesting project to me...thoughts?