The Playlist

'Zombieland' & 'Gangster Squad' Director Ruben Fleischer Going Sci-Fi With New Project

By Ken Guidry
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April 26, 2013 1:00 PM
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0 Comments

News

It was probably be a safe bet that Ruben Fleischer would want to move on from “Gangster Squad” as quickly as possible. The numerous delays, the re-shoots and the middling box office returns must have put a damper on what initially seemed like a star-studded potential hit. It seems the young director is looking to broaden his genre base by signing on to direct and produce an as yet untitled sci-fi/fantasy film on behalf of Sony Pictures.

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Box Office: 'Zero Dark Thirty' Targets Top Spot, 'A Haunted House' Scares Away 'Gangster Squad' For #2

By Gabe Toro
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January 13, 2013 12:08 PM
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7 Comments

Box Office

While Annapurna Pictures backed a number of ambitious films this year including John Hillcoat's bootleggin' “Lawless,” Paul Thomas Anderson's challenging “The Master” and Andrew Dominik's bitter “Killing Them Softly,” the financial rewards were far less than expected. But Megan Ellison's production company has kicked off 2013 strong with Kathryn Bigelow's “Zero Dark Thirty” grossing a solid $24 million in its first weekend of wide release after selling out independent theaters in the last two weeks. After scoring five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Sony timed this expansion perfectly, and the film laid the smackdown on a couple of strong competitors.

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What Are You Seeing This Weekend? 'Gangster Squad' & 'A Haunted House' Headline In Theaters

By Emma Bernstein
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January 11, 2013 1:59 PM
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2 Comments

News

There really is no rest for the wicked. Blood and brain matter, lechery, and crude allusion spew out of this weekend's cinematic lineup by the gallon. There's gangster genre violence, imitative violence, monster violence, violence against children, bullying violence, historical violence, and the violence with which (the always spectacular) Dame Maggie Smith attacks a role and stuns us all. As another screen giant once told her guests: "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." Oh, but before you do -- let us know what violent film you'd like to see this weekend. Comment section below, please!

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10 Classic Gangster Movies Better Than 'Gangster Squad'

By The Playlist Staff
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January 9, 2013 2:04 PM
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8 Comments

Features

This weekend, a heinous crime is committed in the release of "Gangster Squad." At one time a hot prospect at Warner Bros, attracting an all-star cast including Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Michael Pena and Mireille Enos, many had high hopes for it, but the writing has been on the wall for a while. For instance, some claim that the film's January release date was only a side-effect of reshoots ordered after the Aurora shootings, but the film's original slot -- the second weekend in September, one of the quietest moviegoing weekends of the year -- suggested that Warners never had all that much faith in the finished product.

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Creating A New 1940s Los Angeles, Responding To Aurora & More From The Cast & Crew About 'Gangster Squad'

By Charlie Schmidlin
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January 8, 2013 10:03 AM
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News

For his third directorial effort following the genre mélange of action comedies “Zombieland” and “30 Minutes or Less,” Ruben Fleischer has taken a leap forward in scope and ambition, while taking the narrative back to 1940s Los Angeles. Inspired by the seven-part LA Times articles by Paul Lieberman, “Gangster Squad” charts the apex of NY gangster Mickey Cohen's westward reign, and the guerilla band of LAPD organized to bring it to an end. Armed with a passion for period detail and a modern sensibility, Fleischer has stepped up to the challenge with a fantastic cast behind him, and at the film's Beverly Hills press conference last month, stars Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone -- along with screenwriter/former LAPD cop Will Beall and producers Dan Lin and Kevin McCormick -- joined the director in describing the experience of bringing the project to the screen.

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Review: 'Gangster Squad' An Aggressive, Opulent & Ultimately Wearisome Look At 1940s Los Angeles

By Charlie Schmidlin
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January 7, 2013 9:01 AM
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8 Comments

Reviews

Manifest Destiny lies beside its essential hubris in the period actioner “Gangster Squad,” but beyond the swaggering idealism seen through eponymous hoodlum Mickey Cohen (played by Sean Penn), the film's saturated grab bag of glossy homage proves its final shortcoming. With his third feature, “Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer frames 1940s Los Angeles -- morally compromised, glamorous, and a monument to protect and exploit on both sides of the law -- to adapt Paul Lieberman's true-crime articles into cinematic legend, but in lieu of any sharp insight into the period and its notorious figures, the film's brash, ultraviolent encounters instead build a showy exterior with nothing of import left standing.

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We're Going To War: 6 Clips From 'Gangster Squad'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 4, 2013 4:03 PM
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3 Comments

News

You might have missed it, but last month, Warren Beatty's underrated and colorfully over-the-top "Dick Tracy" made its bow on Blu-ray. So why are we bringing up that 20-plus-year-old movie? Because watching these six clips from "Gangster Squad," we're getting a similar vibe of a scenery chewing, visually audacious approach, though the results don't quite look as compelling.

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‘Gangster Squad’ Director Ruben Fleischer Says Cutting Shooting Sequence Was The "Appropriate And Responsible Thing To Do"

By Edward Davis
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December 18, 2012 12:52 PM
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13 Comments

News

Shooting tragedies in this country are becoming a chillingly common occurrence of late. Responses are tricky: how to balance the desire to be respectful, with not going overboard and becoming overprotective? The question of censorship hit in July, after the shooting tragedy at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The 1940s period picture “Gangster Squad” starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling landed at the center of the fallout for a sequence in the film's trailers that showed Mickey Cohen (Penn) and his men in the middle of a firefight in a movie theater. The connotations of purposely gunning down moviegoers, like the disturbed real-life shooter, no doubt left many feeling that "Gangster Squad" was suddenly in poor taste. Warner Bros. rightly decided to begin pulling the trailer from theaters, and then considered what their next move should be.

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50 New Photos Of Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone & More In 'Gangster Squad'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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December 14, 2012 3:01 PM
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2 Comments

News

So, you know how everyone around your office loves "Mad Men" and now drinks scotch, orders fancy cocktails, wears old school suits and pencil skirts, and suddenly loves French pop? Well, will "Gangster Squad" be the next pop culture event to send everyone raiding their grandma's attic for vintage goods?

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Watch: Sean Penn & Josh Brolin Square Off in New 'Gangster Squad' TV Spot, Plus Featurette & Stylish B&W Cast Photos

By Charlie Schmidlin
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December 12, 2012 10:25 AM
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0 Comments

News

Having taken the low-key route through reshoots, delays, and retooled marketing, Ruben Fleischer's period actioner “Gangster Squad” has come roaring back to life in the last few months, dropping an action-packed trailer, posters, and a fitting soundtrack to match. Eager to make up for lost time, that push now continues with a new featurette, TV spot, and image gallery to beckon audiences back to 1940s Los Angeles.

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