'Gangster Squad' Writer Will Beall in Talks to Pen 'Logan's Run' (Exclusive)

Will Beall, the former L.A. cop-turned-scribe who wrote the script for Warners Bros.' just-greenlighted Gangster Squad, is in negotiations to pen Logan's Run, also for the studio.

The project has been long in development at Warners, but it recently got some new laces for its shoes when producers Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman lined up Ryan Gosling to star and Nicolas Winding Refn to direct the sci-fi action movie.

The project is based on the 1967 novel by William F. Nolan that was adapted memorably into the 1976 feature starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett. The hook is a future society where people are executed upon reaching a certain age and those that seek to avoid their fate are deemed "Runners."

The character of Logan is one of those executioners, known as the Sandmen, who ends up on the run after he becomes sympathetic with members of an underground railroad of Runners.

The project has seen several directors come and go, with the same applying to writers (Alex Garland was the writer prior to Refn and Gosling coming on board.)

Beall, repped by CAA, Management 360 and attorney Rob Goldman, is a writer on ABC's Castle who is quickly making a name for himself in the feature world.

Gangster, which he wrote adapting a series of articles from the Los Angeles Times, has Ruben Fleischer directing and has attracted the interest of Sean Penn, among other top actors.

In January, he was tapped to write a reboot of Lethal Weapon, also for Warners and Silver.

Beall got his wordsmith start when he wrote a novel set in L.A.'s crime world by delving into his police experience. The book was optioned by Scott Rudin, and Beall is writing the adaptation.