Gangster Squad gets first official image

A first official image has been released for Ruben Fleischer's period crime flick Gangster Squad , in which a suited and booted Sean Penn and Josh Brolin face each other down at gunpoint.

There's not much more to the image than a look at the two actors in costume, but Entertainment Weekly also managed to score an interview with Fleischer in which he describes what drew him to the project.

"I was just looking for an opportunity to try something new, and when I read the script, I was completely passionate about it," says Fleischer. "I think that passion and that love for Los Angeles and the love for this period of time and the love for this genre kind of swayed any misgivings the studio might have had.

"It’s been a real step forward for me," he continues. "The size and scale and period – and just the LA of it – makes the movie singular and special."

Set in the '40s, the film follows the exploits of big-time crim Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) and the endeavours of a dedicated police unti to bring him to justice.

"O’Mara (Brolin), our lead character, has just come back from fighting the Nazis with all these ideals after seeing America at its greatest," explains Fleischer. "He’s come home and there’s a gangster running his city. While he was gone, Mickey Cohen took over and he turned the streets of LA into a battle zone."

"In our story, O’ Mara takes the lead of the Gangster Squad, a vigilante police force that fights the gangsters on their own terms, and the battle between them is for the future of Los Angeles."

Gangster Squad is released in the UK on 9 November 2012.