Perhaps the widest jump in both genre and size, Zombieland and 30 Minutes or Less director Ruben Fleischer is helming one of the year’s most-anticipated dramas with likely heavy awards consideration. For Gangster Squad he’s brought together some of the finest actors Hollywood has to offer with Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, Anthony Mackie, Emma Stone and Sean Penn. And tonight we’ve got the first trailer.

The late 1940′s-set Los Angeles crime drama features Brolin and Gosling as cops going up against a ruthless (Penn, who looks to be having a ball of time here). It looks like a glossy take, with Fleischer employing lots of slow-motion trickery, but I’m a sucker for films set in this era and here’s hoping this is more L.A. Confidential than Public Enemies. Check out the trailer below via Apple.

Synopsis:

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.

Gangster Squad hits theaters this fall.