A project I actually kind of forgot all about… no official release date announced yet, but here's our official first look via its first trailer.

Anthony Mackie is member of an ensemble cast of the Warner Bros. period police drama Gangster Squad, which includes a rather strong list of actors including Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Giovanni Ribisi and Michael Pena.

Taking place in the 1940s, the film is based on a multi-part LA Times article by Paul Lieberman – a true story about the LAPD’s secret squad of mercenary cops assigned to hunt down infamous gangster Mickey Cohen, a member of the Jewish Mafia, who also once worked for Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, all in an effort to keep East Coast organized crime figures from moving and settling in.

Mackie plays former LAPD lieutenant Rocky Washington.

The official synopsis reads:

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and–if he has his way–every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It's enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen's world apart. "Gangster Squad" is a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD's efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) from a script by Will Beall (Castle, the TV series) The Gangster Squad is expected to be out this year, but, as already noted, no official date has been revealed yet.

Watch the trailer below (although Mackie doesn't feature much, as you'd probably expect):