London, March 31 (IANS) Veteran actor Sean Penn has been approached to play the lead role of a mobster in director Ruben Fleischer’s new film ‘Gangster Squad’.

The actor will play Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen. The film will focus on elite Los Angeles police officers in the 1940s charged with stopping him and other mobsters, reports contactmusic.com.

Actor Ryan Gosling is expected to play one of the policemen.