Michael Pena Joins Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin in 'Gangster Squad'

The "Battle: Los Angeles" actor will play a police officer eager to prove himself in the 1940s-set crime drama.

3:19 PM PDT 6/7/2011 by Borys Kit

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Michael Pena has joined the all-star cast of Gangster Squad, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow's crime drama set in 1940s Los Angeles.

Gangster is based on a seven-part Los Angeles Times article written by Paul Lieberman centered on how in the 1940s, amid corruption and chaos, the LAPD created a unit called the Gangster Squad to keep the East Coast mafia out of the city.

Josh Brolin is starring as John O'Mara, one of the few cops not on the payroll of gangster Mickey Cohen, being portrayed by Sean Penn. Ryan Gosling, meanwhile, will play Sgt. Jerry Wooters, a good cop who loves the bachelor life.

Pena plays an officer with a Mexican heritage who is eager to prove himself to the squad.

Dan Lin and Kevin McCormick are producing Gangster, while Lin Pictures' Jon Silk is co-producing. Will Beall wrote the latest draft.

Pena, who tends to steal scenes in whatever movie he's in, next stars in 30 Minutes or Less with Jesse Eisenberg and Danny McBride and appeared in Battle: Los Angeles and The Lincoln Lawyer.

He is repped by CAA and Management 360.