It’s been a little strange with Tales From The Gangster Squad, as Warner has seemed certain it’s a plum project that directors should be falling over themselves to helm, but while they’ve offered it to the likes of Darren Aronofsky and Ben Affleck, they’ve had difficulty getting anyone to bite.
Then in mid-November there were rumours Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer was circling the project, which have now been confirmed with Variety saying he’s in active negotiations to direct.
The fact-based script follows an elite squad of Los Angeles police officers in the 1940s who are assigned to fight organised crime kingpins and local gangsters. The project is said to be in the same vein as The Untouchables and L.A. Confidential.
Tales from the Gangster Squad, based on a series of newspaper articles by Paul Liebesman, is written by Will Beall, a former South Central Los Angeles police officer. It not currently certain when shooting will start on this true-life tale.
It also suggests that while Fleischer’s next movie will be 30 Minutes Or Less, we may now have to wait even longer for Zombieland 2.