Warner Bros. spent the last week of September scheduling two potential 2012 awards contenders: Argo and The Gangster Squad.  According to Variety, those release dates won't stick:

  • Ben Affleck's Argo will take The Gangster Squad's place in the calendar on October 12
  • The Gangster Squad---starring Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, and Josh Brolin---will move to a date to be named later in 2012.

Details after the break.

The optimist in me believes that Warner Bros. is happy with what they've seen from the dailies, and want to push both projects closer to the heard of Oscar season.  Argo is automatically in the discussion now that Affleck has a proven track record as a director.  He has a great supporting cast, too, featuring Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Kerry Bishé, and Kyle Chandler. The stranger-than-fiction political subject matter can't hurt.  Check out the synopsis:

ben affleck argo

Based on true events, Argo chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis–the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist named Tony Mendez (Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.

Given the director---Ruben Fleischer of Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less---and the pulp subject matter, Gangster Squad feels less like an awards contender.  But with a cast like this, where Penn, Gosling, and Brolin are joined by Nick Nolte, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Mackie, and Emma Stone... Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss its chances.  Awards be damned, The Gangster Squad looks like a fun throwback.  We'll let you know when WB names the release date.  In the meantime, here's the official synopsis:

the gangster squad sean penn josh brolin

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and–if he has his way–every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart. “The Gangster Squad” is a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD’s efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time.