Gangster Squad

Hey girl, it turns out that Ryan Gosling really may be able to do it all. The Oscar-nominated actor who has broken up street fights and saved pedestrians from oncoming traffic is now set to direct his first feature film, "How to Catch a Monster. " The movie, which will star "Mad Men" actress Christina Hendricks, was also written by Gosling and is set to start filming next spring. The film, set in what a news release described as a "surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city," follows a single mother whose teenage son uncovers a frightening and mysterious underwater town.

After the coffee. Before getting my own late-night show. The Skinny: I went to the "Mad Men" party and bumped into Jon Hamm in the men's room. That's about as exciting as it gets for me these days. Thursday's headlines include the latest news on the Jay Leno-Jimmy Fallon front. Daily Dose: The economy may be showing some signs of turning around (although not in my world), but it's not trickling down to the pay-TV business. Although the number of people subscribing to a pay-TV service didn't decline in 2012, it  grew only by 46,000.

When mobster Mickey Cohen ruled Los Angeles in the late 1940s, his favorite hangout was the legendary Slapsy Maxie's nightclub on Wilshire Boulevard. It's long gone now of course, so to re-create it for the new film "Gangster Squad" the filmmakers had to be creative. Production designer Maher Ahmad found the right spot for Slapsy Maxie's almost by accident, while driving around with the film's first location manager. They had been looking for a vintage house in a suburban neighborhood when they passed an Art Deco-inspired block of empty businesses in Bellflower.

For Larry Zanoff, the armorer who lent Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" its firepower, fake blood can be a serious occupational hazard. "The gun gets splattered with fake blood," he said. "Now it's all gummed up; it doesn't want to work anymore. That's why we had backup guns, multiples and multiples of them. " Zanoff, 48, has never had a shortage of guns in his life. The son of a defense industry engineer who was also a competitive rifle shooter, Zanoff showed at age 6 an aptitude for disassembling his father's firearms.

Warner Bros. is contemplating changes to its upcoming thriller "Gangster Squad" in the wake of Friday's movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo. during a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises. " The film, scheduled for release Sept. 7, features a key scene in which mobsters open fire on a theater audience from behind a movie screen. Automatic gunfire rips through the screen as horrified filmgoers rush for the exits and police try to stop the mayhem. Trailers for "Gangster Squad" prominently feature the scene.

Over several days last week, actors Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin donned fedoras and 1940s-era LAPD badges to re-shoot scenes for the Warner Bros. crime drama “Gangster Squad” in Los Angeles' historic Chinatown. During nighttime shoots, filmmakers staged car chases and a gunfight on Gin Ling Way with blazing machine guns, and set off a truck explosion. “It's been many years since we've had a full-scale feature film of this scope in Chinatown,” said George Yu, executive director of the Los Angeles Chinatown Business Council.

Taking its name and inspiration from a real LAPD operation that battled organized crime during the 1940s and '50s, the new film "Gangster Squad" dramatizes the story of Sgt. John O'Mara (played by Josh Brolin) and his squad's crusade against the interloping East Coast mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). Given free rein to bend (and break) the rules by the police chief, O'Mara and his men (played by Ryan Gosling, Robert Patrick, Anthony Mackie and others) pull no punches when going after criminals.

The new crime thriller "Gangster Squad," with its swell cast led by Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn and Emma Stone, tries to capture mob-infested Los Angeles circa 1949, when Hollywood glam ruled the Strip, wiseguys took aim with tommy guns and fedoras were all the rage. Those fedoras are a tip-off of problems to come - there are simply too many of them in "Gangster Squad. " Director Ruben Fleischer gives a lot of neon and noir-ish flash to the turf wars between East Coast and Chicago underworld figures for control of the City of Angels and their battles with the undercover cops obsessed with taking them down.

The hunt for Osama bin Laden last year proved a bigger draw for this past weekend's moviegoers than a battle against organized crime 70 years ago. The thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" had a decisive victory at the box office, grossing $24 million in the United States and Canada, according to an estimate from distributor Sony Pictures. Despite a bigger budget and more famous stars, such as Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, "Gangster Squad" opened to a disappointing $16.7 million.

Long buzzed about as an Academy Award contender, Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" won't be competing for any Oscars this season, as  Warner Bros. is moving the F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation's release date from Christmas 2012 to summer 2013. It's the second high-profile film whose release the studio has changed in recent weeks. In wake of the movie-theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., Warner Bros.  moved its crime drama "Gangster Squad" from Sept. 7 to next January in order to reshoot a scene involving a gunfight inside a cinema.

The hunt for Osama bin Laden last year proved a bigger draw for this past weekend's moviegoers than a battle against organized crime 70 years ago. The thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" had a decisive victory at the box office, grossing $24 million in the United States and Canada, according to an estimate from distributor Sony Pictures. Despite a bigger budget and more famous stars, such as Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, "Gangster Squad" opened to a disappointing $16.7 million.

The hunt for Osama Bin Laden last year proved a bigger draw for moviegoers than a battle against organized crime 70 years ago. Thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" had a decisive victory at the box office this weekend, grossing $24 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to an estimate from distributor Sony Pictures. Despite a bigger budget and more famous stars such as Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, "Gangster Squad" opened to a disappointing $16.7 million. The low budget horror spoof "A Haunted House," starring Marlon Wayans, had a strong start, meanwhile, launching with $18.8 million.

When mobster Mickey Cohen ruled Los Angeles in the late 1940s, his favorite hangout was the legendary Slapsy Maxie's nightclub on Wilshire Boulevard. It's long gone now of course, so to re-create it for the new film "Gangster Squad" the filmmakers had to be creative. Production designer Maher Ahmad found the right spot for Slapsy Maxie's almost by accident, while driving around with the film's first location manager. They had been looking for a vintage house in a suburban neighborhood when they passed an Art Deco-inspired block of empty businesses in Bellflower.

After the coffee. Before getting my Golden Globes outfit together. The Skinny: Normally I welcome the weekend, but since I'll spend much of this weekend at the TV Press Tour in Pasadena it won't feel like a break. Oh, well, there are worse things in life than a nice hotel and free food. Friday's headlines include a preview of the weekend box office, the backlash against the Oscar nominations and a review of "Gangster Squad. " Daily Dose: NBC's "Rock Center" looked less like a newsmagazine and more like an infomercial for the network Thursday night.

Taking its name and inspiration from a real LAPD operation that battled organized crime during the 1940s and '50s, the new film "Gangster Squad" dramatizes the story of Sgt. John O'Mara (played by Josh Brolin) and his squad's crusade against the interloping East Coast mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). Given free rein to bend (and break) the rules by the police chief, O'Mara and his men (played by Ryan Gosling, Robert Patrick, Anthony Mackie and others) pull no punches when going after criminals.

The new crime thriller "Gangster Squad," with its swell cast led by Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn and Emma Stone, tries to capture mob-infested Los Angeles circa 1949, when Hollywood glam ruled the Strip, wiseguys took aim with tommy guns and fedoras were all the rage. Those fedoras are a tip-off of problems to come - there are simply too many of them in "Gangster Squad. " Director Ruben Fleischer gives a lot of neon and noir-ish flash to the turf wars between East Coast and Chicago underworld figures for control of the City of Angels and their battles with the undercover cops obsessed with taking them down.

The realization on Friday that Warner Bros. was poised to release a movie, “Gangster Squad,” which features mobsters opening fire in a movie theater elicited a collective cringe and prompted the studio to consider replacing the scene. But it wasn't just an unfortunate coincidence that a new movie would featuring violence in a theater. Filmmakers have been going to that well for a long time now. Another gangster picture, “Public Enemies,” included a climactic scene in and around a movie theater, with John Dillinger surveilled while at a Chicago screening of the movie "Manhattan Melodrama," then shot as he leaves the showing.

ABC report a 'mistake' ABC News President Ben Sherwood said reporter Brian Ross' on-air speculation that James Holmes, the suspect in the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., could be linked to the tea party "did not live up to the standards and practices of ABC News. " "We put something on the air that we did not know to be true and the part that we needed to be true was not germane to the story we were covering," Sherwood told reporters at the semiannual Television Critics Assn.

Emma Stone has been very busy the last couple of years, appearing in the blockbuster "The Amazing Spider-Man," "The Help" and "Crazy Stupid Love" while becoming one of the young starlets worth watching on the red carpet. The frequent redhead, who actually happens to be a natural blond, really hit her style stride at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards when she chose a minimal, peach, cap-sleeve Calvin Klein gown. She's gone on to more daring choices with a svelte Martin Grant top and skirt at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards and a red Lanvin dress embellished with crystal flowers at last year's Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala.

Ryan Gosling took his mom, Donna, to the world premiere of his new film, "Gangster Squad," at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Monday night. When she was asked on the red carpet who she was wearing, Mom came back with "Eva Mendes," having raided the closet of Ryan's girlfriend. [E!] Beyonce and Solange Knowles are talented and famous ... and nice enough to return borrowed clothes they've worn clean and pressed. Designer Rubin Singer, who dressed Beyonce for a New Year's Eve performance in Las Vegas, said the sisters are the only celebrities who "always dry clean and send clothes back in a box, with a handwritten thank you note.