You realize, of course, that Will Beall‘s Gangster Squad is The Untouchables all over again, except it happens in ’50s Los Angeles with temperamental hair-trigger gangster Mickey Cohen (to be played by a bald-headed Sean Penn) being the target instead of Robert De Niro‘s Al Capone.

Otherwise, as a friend who’s read the script puts it, “Brian DePalma and David Mamet might want to think about a plagiarism lawsuit.” He didn’t mean that literally but in a flip, drink-in-his-hand sort of way.

Ryan Gosling has the Kevin Costner role and Josh Brolin…will he play Sean Connery? The Warner Bros. film will begin shooting in the fall under Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer.

Gosling, meanwhile, has read my 4.15 “Farewell, My Dignity” post, come to his senses and decided against doing The Lone Ranger — one of the wisest better-late-than-never decisions of his professional life.