For a few years there, Nick Nolte seemed lost in the weeds. After “Hotel Rwanda” the actor’s work was patchy at best, but he is gearing up one helluva career revival. On HBO he’s got a role in Michael Mann and David Milch‘s forthcoming horse racing world drama “Luck“; he’s Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton‘s Dad in “Warrior“; he’s set to star in Robert Redford‘s political thriller “The Company You Keep,” and he’s even going to hang out with Jason Statham in “Parker.” Well, he’s about to bring his grizzled charm to a project that outshines all of these.
Already featuring the sausage party of Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Anthony Mackie, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, Holt McCallany, Robert Patrick, Frank Grillo and Sullivan Stapleton (and oh yeah, Emma Stone and Mirielle Enos), Nolte is yet another big league name joining the ranks of “Gangster Squad.” The gangland tale focuses on a specialized L.A.P.D. unit set up in the ‘40s to fight East Coast gangster Mickey Cohen (Penn) and his growing footprint in the city. Nolte will play the new, Purple Heart-wearing chief of the LAPD Bill Parker, one of the few who hasn’t come under the thumb of Cohen, and puts together the squad to bring him down.
Production on the film kicks off next month with Ruben Fleischer directing. With the cast, it should be un-fuck-up-able, but expectations are riding super high already so let’s hope it can live up to the hype the ensemble alone is building. [Deadline]