The release of Gangster Squad was thrown into disarray after the Aurora Dark Knight Rises shootings, as one of the main scenes towards the end saw gangsters opening fire in a cinema. The result was the release got pushed back to January and major reshoots were needed to add a new ending. Now the promotion of the movie is gearing up again, with a new poster and a great new trailer. Here’s the synopsis: ‘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. 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.’ The movie hits cinemas January 11th.
Gorgeous New Gangster Squad Banner Debuts
There are high hopes for Gangster Squad, the upcoming Ruben Fleischer movie which takes on the real-life story of LAPD’s fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s. The film has an amazing cast, including Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte and Anthony Mackie. The new banner above is gorgeous, recalling the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Here’s the synopsis: ‘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. 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.’
The film hits UK cinemas on November 9th.
New Gangster Squad International Trailer
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. 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. It’s due out November 9th.
Gangster Squad Trailer – Ryan Gosling gets out his guns
Ever since the cast for Gangster Squad started coming together – Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone – it appeared it could be something special. Now we’ve got the trailer and it suggests the film will be extremely cool. Here’s the synopsis: ‘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. 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.’
Sean Penn Circles Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Normally the closest Sean Penn gets to mainstream popcorn cinema is an earnest drama or indie project, but now he might make a proper populist movie, as Deadline reports he’s in talks to appear in 20th Century Fox’s remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which Ben Stiller will direct and take the lead role in.
The movie is about the Walter Mitty, a mild-mannered photo manager who sets off on a quest to find a missing negative, and who discovers that his dreams of adventure don’t quite match the reality. Sean Penn will play a photographer, in what has been described as a small but crucial role. Kristen Wiig, Patton Oswalt, Adam Scott, and Shirley MacLaine are also attached to star.
Production is already underway, although it isn’t clear when Fox plans to release the movie.
This Must Be The Place (Cinema)
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Running Time: 112 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: April 6th, 2012
What is it with Hollywood and unimaginative film titles? In this case it can be forgiven as it refers to a song by the Talking Heads, and not some ill thought out, Channel 5 afternoon film drama. I suppose ‘Ex Rockstar Turned Nazi Hunter’, or ‘Cheyenne’s Odyssey’ might have been too obvious.
This Must Be The Place played in competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2011, and is certainly quirky enough to have gone down well. The film is directed by Paolo Sorrentino (his first English language film, having won the Cannes Prix Du Jury in 2008 with Il Divo) and stars the incredible talent that is Sean Penn. [Read more…]
This Must Be The Place Trailer
It’s Sean Penn as we’ve never quite seem him before, as a fading, androgynous rock star who sounds oddly like Droopy the Dog. In the intriguing This Must Be The Place, Penn plays Cheyenne, a wealthy former rock star, now bored and jaded in his retirement, who embarks on a quest to find his father’s persecutor, an ex-Nazi war criminal now hiding out in the US. Learning his father is close to death, he travels to New York in the hope of being reconciled with him during his final hours, only to arrive too late. Having been estranged for over 30 years, it is only now in death that he learns the true extent of his father’s humiliation in Auschwitz at the hands of former SS Officer Aloise Muller – an event he is determined to avenge. So begins a life-altering journey across the heartland of America to track down and confront his father’s nemesis.Penn’s characters certainly makes an unlikely avenger. Click below for the new international trailer. The film’s set for UK release on April 6th.
First Image From The Gangster Squad
There’s been a huge amount of interest in Hollywood in Gangster Squad ever since the script first started doing the rounds. It had a few problems securing a director, but then Ruben Fleishcher came onboard and a great cast was secured including Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Nick Nolte, Michael Pena, and Giovanni Ribisi.
Now the first image from the movie has arrived via EW. Here’s what Fleischer had to say about the movie, “We’ve taken some creative license but tried to stay true to the original story and characters as much as possible. O’Mara (Josh Brolin), our lead character, has just come back from fighting the Nazis with all these ideals after seeing America at its greatest. And he’s come home and there’s a gangster running his city. While he was gone, Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) took over and he turned the streets of L.A. into a battle zone. In our story, O’ Mara takes the lead of the Gangster Squad, a vigilante police force that fights the gangsters on their own terms, and the battle between them is for the future of Los Angeles: whether it’s going to become corrupt and run by this bunch of gangsters or these guys who fought for these values and want L.A. to be the shining beacon on the west coast that it was always intended to be.
“Ryan’s character also went to war, but when he came back, he was a little disillusioned. So he’s more on the fence, hanging out in nightclubs and hanging out with guys who might be gangsters. He’s less clear on where he stands in terms of standing up against Mickey Cohen.”
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
DiCaprio and Penn Eye The Revenant
Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn are two actors it’d be fascinating to see facing off against one another properly on screen, and now it looks like it may happen, as Deadline reports they’ve been taking meetings to star in the revenge drama The Revenant for New Regency and director Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Mark L. Smith wrote the screenplay, adapted from Michael Punke’s novel. The story is about Hugh Glass, a frontiersman in the 1820s who is mauled by a bear during a fur trapping expedition. Two men stay behind to look after him, but, thinking Hugh won’t survive, they rob him and leave him for dead. When the man recovers, he goes out to seek revenge on the two men who abandoned him. Leonardo DiCaprio is being considered for Hugh Glass, and Sean Penn may be one of the men who robs him.
If the cast falls into place (which at the moment is by no means certain), The Revenant could start shooting as early as next autumn.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Milk (Blu-ray)
Director: Gus Van Sant
Running Time: 130 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: June 8th, 2009
Only a few years ago, the idea of Hollywood making a movie almost completely peopled by gay characters would have been virtually unthinkable. However it seems Brokeback Mountain might have opened a few doors, as not long after that film came out both Gus Van Sant and Bryan Singer announced they’d be making movies based on the life of Harvey Milk, who in 1977 became the first openly gay man to be elected to political office in California. However Van Sant’s film was the first out of the gate, while Singer’s has now fallen by the wayside. That’s probably not a bad thing, as it’s difficult to imagine Singer’s take on the subject being better than Milk. [Read more…]