Zombieland director signs on for Gangster Squad

Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer has been enlisted to direct ’40s crime drama Gangster Squad for Warner Bros .

The period film has previously attracted the respectable likes of Ben Affleck and Darren Aronofsky, who both eventually passed on the project.

Scripted by former cop Will Beall, Gangster Squad has been compared in tone to The Untouchables and L.A. Confidential, and should definitely establish Fleischer as more than just a horror-comedy director.

Deadline report that Squad follows a group of elite Los Angeles officers who fight organised crime kingpins like Mickey Cohen, and will apparently be based on actual historical occurrences.

It’ll be a definite shake-up for Fleischer, whose Zombieland featured its fair share of fun visual flourishes – none of which we imagine will be replicated in Gangster Squad . Unless Beall decides to incorporate a quirky set of rules for how to survive a gangster film…