We’ve got a few interesting casting stories to share today.  Briefly:

• Sean Penn is in talks to join the increasingly impressive cast of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film, Inherent Vice.
• Looking to expand outside of the Marvel world, Chris Evans is eyeing a starring role in the Stephen King adaptation The Ten O’Clock People.
• Li Bingbing (Resident Evil: Retribution) is the first Chinese actress to join the cast of Michael Bay’s sequel Transformers 4, which will feature a host of Chinese stars.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Considering that the film was bumped around from September to January due to a national tragedy, it would be nice to feel a little sorry for Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad.  The period film, which casts Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling as cops going against Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) for control of Los Angeles, has a great cast and period setting.  On top of that, The Untouchables is a great film and it wouldn’t be the worst thing to see more films like it.  And yet, Gangster Squad is a total miss.  My review of the Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Director Pierre Morel is looking to helm yet another action-thriller.  Heat Vision reports that the Taken director is in talks to direct the thriller adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s novel Prone Gunman.  Penned by Peter Travis (Dredd), the film will star Sean Penn as an international operative who is betrayed by his organization and led on a cat-and-mouse chase across Europe.  Joel Silver is producing, and the pic is being set up as a potential action franchise for the Oscar-winning Penn.

Production is looking to begin this spring in several European locations.  Morel has experience in turning veteran actors into action stars, as Taken launched Liam Neeson into a career that’s now full of action thrillers.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis of the novel.

It’s a bit disappointing that Ruben Fleischer‘s Gangster Squad can live in such a rich setting and still feel so light.  As seen through a grand tradition of films dating back over 70 years, post-war Los Angeles was boozy, hedonistic, dangerous, and dark.  Gangster Squad waters down this colorful world, and simply coasts on being an amusing, frivolous action film.  There’s nothing wrong with that, and with a strong cast at his disposal, Fleischer finds a nice blend between the style he brought to Zombieland and the spirit of the time period.  Unfortunately, a thin plot and even thinner characters make Gangster Squad as intense as a drive-by shooting and just as fleeting.

With the film set to hit theaters tomorrow, a final extended trailer for director Ruben Fleischer’s crime drama Gangster Squad has been released online.  It looks to be mostly made up of footage that we’ve seen before, but this is the most comprehensive look at the film we’ve been given thus far.  If you missed any of our recent coverage, be sure to check out Steve’s extended interview with star Josh Brolin and Christina’s coverage of the press conference that included Fleischer, Brolin, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone.  Look for more interviews over the next few days.

Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.  The film also stars Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña, Robert Patrick and Mireille Enos.  Gangster Squad opens on January 11th.

Warner Bros. has released six clips from director Ruben Fleischer’s upcoming period crime drama Gangster Squad.  The movie is set in 1940s Los Angeles and stars Sean Penn as real-life gangster Mickey Cohen, who became the target of special task force known as the “Gangster Squad”.  If you missed it, be sure to check out our set visit coverage here, and a bounty of images from the film right here.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  The film also stars Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, and Giovanni Ribisi.  Gangster Squad opens on January 11th.

A new behind-the-scenes featurette has gone online for director Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad. In addition to a wealth of new footage, the video features commentary from the cast as they talk about gangster movies, the plot of Gangster Squad specifically and the lengths to which each of their characters will go to rid their city of crime, even becoming close to criminals themselves. Be sure to check out a host of images here and get caught up on Andre’s set visit here.

The movie stars Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, and Sean Penn as the villainous Mickey Cohen.  Gangster Squad opens January 11, 2013. Hit the jump to check out the new featurette.

Warner Bros. has released a large batch of new images from director Ruben Fleischer’s upcoming period drama Gangster Squad.  The movie is set in 1940s Los Angeles and stars Sean Penn as real-life gangster Mickey Cohen, who became the target of special task force known as the “Gangster Squad”.  If you missed it, be sure to check out all of our set visit coverage including 15 things to know and our interviews with Fleischer, Josh Brolin, Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Giovanni Ribisi, and producers Dan Lin and Kevin McCormick.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Ryan Gosling, Michael Pena, Nick Nolte, and Emma Stone.  Gangster Squad opens on January 11th.

For the set visit to Gangster Squad, we were driven from Hollywood to the middle of Bellflower, California, which had been dressed to look like 1940’s Hollywood. It was a cold night, but before we can get to set, we were hustled around the hundreds of onlookers near the edges of the shoot. Ryan Gosling was shooting that day, and that meant many of the people from the neighborhood wanted to have a look, and were trying to take picture or film him with their phones. It was impressive to that many people at considering that it was already ten at night and the weather was already cold.

We were on set October 20, 2011, and at the time we had no idea that Gangster Squad would ever become controversial. But how could we know that a shooting in the summer of 2012 would change and delay the film?  Such will explain why they talk about shooting a shooting in Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and why these interviews didn’t run months ago. At the time, spirits were high as they were halfway through the shooting process and Sean Penn has just started filming, though he wasn’t on set that night. To find out more about the things we learned on the set of Gangster Squad, read on after the jump.

If you’re still hungry for more footage from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and can’t wait until it opens this Friday, then you’ll enjoy this new clip featuring the company of Dwarves singing a melancholy tune. It’s lovely out of context, but becomes much more powerful once you’re in the thick of it and have seen the Dwarves’ backstory.

We’re exactly one month away from the debut of Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad and a new TV spot has been released to remind you of that fact. This piece shows off more footage from the crime drama that sets the villainous gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) against the combined handsomeness of Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling. Hit the jump to check out both videos. 

Oscar-winner Sean Penn has played many roles: a gay rights activist in Milk, a no-nonsense crime boss in the upcoming Gangster Squad and even a glam rocker-turned-Nazi hunter in This Must Be the Place. But action star? It looks like that may be the next challenge for Penn to tackle as he’s negotiating to star in Prone Gunman, an action-thriller adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s novel. The French crime story centers on Martin Terrier, an international operative who is betrayed by his organization and is led on a cat-and-mouse chase across Europe. If Penn takes the job, a potential action franchise might also be in the works. Hit the jump for more.

A batch of character banners for director Ruben Fleischer’s (Zombieland) upcoming crime drama Gangster Squad has been released.  The movie is set in 1940s Los Angeles and stars Sean Penn as real-life gangster Mickey Cohen, who became the target of special task force known as the “Gangster Squad”.  All of the characters get to look super cool and/or badass in their own character banners here except for poor Giovanni Ribisi, who’s left fiddling with a film canister for some reason.  It seems like forever ago that the film’s release was pushed back in the wake of this summer’s theater shootings, but the pic will finally hit theaters in a couple of months.

Hit the jump to check out the character banners.  The film also stars Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, and Giovanni Ribisi.  Gangster Squad opens on January 11th.

Criterion always delights, and recently they’ve put out two cult classics: David Fincher’s The Game, and Franc Roddam’s Quadrophenia. The former stars Michael Douglas and Sean Penn and came between Se7en and Fight Club in Fincher’s career, and as he made it for a studio (Gramercy) that wasn’t long for distribution it led to it having a tortured home video history – hence it’s cult status. The latter features a soundtrack by The Who, but didn’t star them, so it’s known mostly by fans of the band. Our reviews of both movies on Blu-ray follow after the jump.

Here’s what we have in store for our latest poster round-up:

• Iron Man 3, featuring a close-up of Iron Man (fitting, since the film will now be released in 3D).  Starring Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau, Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 opens May 3th, 2013.
• Jack Reacher, the Christopher McQuarrie adaptation of Lee Child’s novel, stars Tom Cruise as the titular tough guy.  The film, also starring Rosamund Pike, opens December 21st, 2012.
• This Must Be the Place, starring Sean Penn as a Nazi-hunting former glam rocker, opens November 2nd, 2012.
• Hyde Park on Hudson, featuring Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt, opens in limited release starting December 7th.

Hit the jump to see the posters and synopses. 

Five new character posters for director Ruben Fleischer’s (Zombieland) period crime drama Gangster Squad have landed online.  The movie is set in 1940s Los Angeles and stars Sean Penn as real-life gangster Mickey Cohen, who became the target of special task force known as the “Gangster Squad”.  The pic is undergoing a bit of a marketing reboot after being pushed from its fall release date to January in the wake of the tragic theater shootings this summer.  We saw a new trailer yesterday, and these new posters do a fine job of highlighting Fleischer’s stylish take on the period setting (reminiscent of this previously released banner).  The only issue is that they still carry the old September release date.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  The film also stars Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Michael Peña, Anthony Mackie, and Giovanni Ribisi. Gangster Squad opens on January 11th.