'Strike Back' Star In Talks to Join 'Gangster Squad' (Exclusive)

Sullivan Stapleton, who stars in Cinemax’s original series Strike Back, is in negotiations to join the cast of Gangster Squad, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’s period crime movie.

Ruben Fleischer is directing the pic, which counts Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone among its large cast.

Dan Lin and Kevin McCormick are producing. Jon Silk is co-producing.

Stapleton will play a childhood friend of Gosling’s dapper cop, a man who grew up to become a mob enforcer but later acts as a police informant.

Production begins September in Los Angeles.

Stapleton gained the town’s attention with his work in Animal Kingdom, the acclaimed Australian crime movie, with WME picking him for representation. The actor stars in the Cinemax’s 10-episode series Strike Back, which debuts tonight, playing a Delta Force operative working with a British military unit.

In addition to WME, he is repped by Shanahan Management in Australia.

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