Sean Penn, Josh Brolin & Ryan Gosling suiting up for GANGSTER SQUAD

Earlier we reported that Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling were offered roles in Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad. Deadline reports today, that Josh Brolin has now been added to the mix and is in discussion for a role. Penn would star as L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen, while Gosling and Brolin would play cops assigned to take him down. 

Ben Affleck and Darren Aronofsky were offered the directors chair before Fleischer was hired.  The movie will be based on a series of articles in The Los Angeles Times written by Paul Lieberman back in 2008. The articles examine an LAPD unit that's set up in the 1940s to fend off the growing influence of the East Coast Mafia in the city. The police group ended up becoming very powerful, and the battles with the Mafia escalated, leading to mayhem and betrayals. The LAPD unit was a secret "off the record" police task force who went after Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen, a high-profile gangster who was a member of the "Jewish Mafia."

No deals are official yet, so let's hope that Penn will committ to a film and not drop out. We know that Brolin looks good in period attire from these recent photos of him on the set of Men In Black III. I think Gosling is a great actor and will be a great fit. This sounds to me like it has the potential to be as epic as LA Confidential or The Untouchables was.

What are your thoughts?