Gangster Squad is a 2013 American crime film directed by Ruben Fleischer, from a screenplay written by Will Beall and starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, and Sean Penn.The story is loosely based on the Los Angeles Police Department officers and detectives who formed a group called the "Gangster Squad unit" who attempted to combat Mickey Cohen and his gang during the 1940s and 1950s.