Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling Join Police Drama THE NICE GUYS

The Wrap reports that Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling have signed on for cop drama THE NICE GUYS from director Shane Black (Iron Man 3), producer Joel Silver and Warner Bros. Black and Silver collaborated on the Lethal Weapon films years ago.

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THE NICE GUYS has a script by Black with Anthony Bagarozzi and follows two detectives in 1970s Los Angeles -- "Jack Healy (muscle-for-hire, recovering alcoholic) and Holland March (private eye, practicing alcoholic), who are brought together by the suicide of a fading porn star. However, the dead girl's aunt is convinced she saw her niece alive and well after the highly publicized incident. March needs money, takes the case, and within days, it's blossomed into a far-reaching murder conspiracy, bizarrely rooted in smog and the U.S. auto industry."

A staged reading was held at the 2011 Austin Film Festival.

Crowe's other upcoming big screen projects include The Water Diviner and Fathers and Daughters. He recently appeared in Noah, Winter's Tale, Man of Steel, Broken City, and 2012 film adaptation of Les Miserables. He rose to fame for his role in 2000's Gladiator, which won him the Oscar for Best Actor, followed by A Beautiful Mind in 2001, which earned him a Golden Globe.

Gosling has appeared in the films Only God Forgives, Gangster Squad, The Place Beyond the Pines, Crazy, Stupid, Love., as well as Drive, Blue Valentine, Lars and the Real Girl, Half Nelson, and, of course, the romantic drama The Notebook opposite Rachel McAdams.

Photo Credit: BEImages