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Saturday, January 05, 2013

Mob Kingpin Mickey Cohen Played by Sean Penn in Gangster Squad

Public enemy number one, Mickey Cohen, is brought to life on the big screen by two-time Oscar-winner Sean Penn in Warner Bros.’ epic, action-thriller, “Gangster Squad.”

“I thought it would be a fun old-school gangster picture with a cast I have great admiration for,” Penn says on what drew him to the film. “And upon meeting director Ruben Fleischer, I was sold.”

Set in Los Angeles, 1949, “Gangster Squad” revolves around ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen who 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 he has under his thumb. 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 Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.

Mickey Cohen may be an underworld figure, but his very public image and commanding presence make him a man not to be crossed…in business or pleasure. He goes beyond merciless; any breach is a betrayal for which one pays the ultimate price. But he also has the undeniable charisma that comes with great power.

According to producer Dan Lin, “Cohen, in real life, was over the top. He was a gangster, but a Hollywood gangster. He was funny, he loved talking to reporters and, in public, he really wanted to entertain people, as if he were one of the movie stars he was always trying to woo. Of course, in private, he was doing dark, evil things.”

Fleischer cites, “When I imagined bringing the movie to the screen, the one character that everything seemed to hinge on was Cohen, the villain, this larger-than-life personality. I immediately thought of Sean Penn, so having him in the role was huge. Mickey is such a dynamic, memorable, menacing character and Sean has the gravitas, the intensity and the humor to pull it off.”

Though only remotely familiar with the real man, Penn says that for his interpretation of the character, “I tried to ignore the literal. The real Mickey Cohen so resembled Al Capone, who I thought De Niro had done so indelibly in ‘The Untouchables,’ that I felt, for a wide audience who largely would not have been aware of Mickey Cohen, mimicking Cohen in looks or behavior would have been unnecessarily burdened with baggage. I thought it was interesting to approach it and let it grow from just a few pieces of Cohen’s background. He was a prize fighter, but the style of fighting was more primitive than today, and Cohen was more primitive in many ways.”

“Sean really brought to life this guy who, in reality and in our somewhat fictionalized account of him, has a huge ego and is very colorful,” producer Kevin McCormick relates. “Cohen had his own publicists, spreads in Life Magazine, owned his own haberdashery and never wore the same suit twice, and had a collection of beautiful, statuesque ladies on his arm all the time. Sean’s interpretation of the man is fascinating. In the heyday of gangster movies, those guys were always such seductive characters, and I think Sean has that same ability to mesmerize us.”

“There’s something very appealing about the way Sean plays Mickey Cohen,” co-star Josh Brolin echoes. “Watching him during a scene, I couldn’t help but like him, even though my character despises him and everything he stands for. Sean really brought out the charm in him, even when he was doing something deadly.”

“Gangster Squad” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Friday, January 04, 2013

HBO's Profugos - Fugitives from the Law and Mafia


A FAILED drug trafficking operation that sparks a frantic pursuit of four men in Chile as they flee both the Mafia and the law is the gripping premise of new 13-episode actioner Profugos which will premiere on Astro’s Cinemax channel 412 on Jan 4 at 11pm.

The four ‘profugos’, which means fugitive, had been contracted to transport a liquid cocaine shipment from the border of Bolivia to the Chilean port of Iquique but in the midst of the final delivery, a shot rings out from a nearby terrace, unleashing a violent ambush.

This brand new original series produced by HBO Latin America, was filmed over six months entirely in Chile, and heading the cast as the four fugitives are Nestor Cantillana, Benjamin Vicuna, Francisco Reyes and Luis Gnecco.

A complex web of ambitions, interests and corruption move the threads of this story where no one is who they appear to be, everyone hides a past and sheer desperation unites the foursome who flee without knowing exactly who’s pursuing them while doing everything possible to protect their loved ones.

Scenic locations in Chile serving as backdrop include Iquique, Valparaiso, Santiago, Farellones, Puerto Montt and desert regions bordering Bolivia.

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Thursday, January 03, 2013

46 Years Ago Today - Jack Ruby Dies of Cancer

On January 3, 1967, Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, dies of cancer in a Dallas hospital. The Texas Court of Appeals had recently overturned his death sentence for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald and was scheduled to grant him a new trial.

On November 24, 1963, two days after Kennedy's assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was brought to the basement of the Dallas police headquarters on his way to a more secure county jail. A crowd of police and press with live television cameras rolling gathered to witness his departure. As Oswald came into the room, Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd and fatally wounded him with a single shot from a concealed .38 revolver. Ruby, who was immediately detained, claimed he was distraught over the president's assassination. Some called him a hero, but he was nonetheless charged with first-degree murder.

Jack Ruby, originally known as Jacob Rubenstein, operated strip joints and dance halls in Dallas and had minor connections to organized crime. He also had a relationship with a number of Dallas policemen, which amounted to various favors in exchange for leniency in their monitoring of his establishments. He features prominently in Kennedy assassination theories, and many believe he killed Oswald to keep him from revealing a larger conspiracy. In his trial, Ruby denied the charge, maintaining that he was acting out of patriotism. In March 1964, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

The official The Warren Commission Report: The Official Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy of 1964 concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby were part of a larger conspiracy, either domestic or international, to assassinate President Kennedy. Despite its seemingly firm conclusions, the report failed to silence conspiracy theories surrounding the event, and in 1978 the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in a preliminary report that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy" that may have involved multiple shooters and organized crime. The committee's findings, as with the findings of the Warren Commission, continue to be widely disputed.

Thanks to The History Channel.

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Urgent International Action Deemed Required to Combat Unprecedented Levels of Transnational Organized Crime

From Central America’s drug cartels and human trafficking in Australia to money laundering and financial fraud in Switzerland, organized crime has “embraced globalization” and is causing national security issues around the world. But why are multilateral, global governance bodies and international leaders not taking more action?

A new conference report from The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) looks at how the constructive powers initiative (CPI) can play a greater role in addressing the security and institutional challenges that organized crime inflicts upon regional and global security.

“The current geographical breadth, level of sophistication and broad array of markets and activities that transnational organized criminals are involved in is unprecedented,” the report says. “[Organized crime] is constantly on the lookout for new markets, new routes to smuggle its products and weak states where it can set up operations.” Moreover, the dimensions and impact of transnational organized crime are not exclusive to law enforcement; contrary to what many governments believe, this type of crime undermines national institutions more broadly.

The report points out that member states of universal organizations such as the United Nations do not treat the issue with the urgency it requires, which inhibits progress on policy coordination. In addition, policy advisers, who are responsible for anticipating items for their national leaders, are challenged by the speed at which transnational issues are emerging and evolving in a post-Cold War world. The report calls for greater leadership and partnerships in policy coordination and capacity-building to tackle these challenges and transnational organized crime.

The report notes that, to tackle transnational organized crime, countries with shared interests will need to generate momentum with “the strategic decision to make coordinating their crime policies a priority.” Hence, there is functional role for the CPI, which is made up of government and non-government representatives from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey: countries that are “democratic, politically influential, economically significant, non-nuclear-armed … with a proven track record of active and creative diplomacy at both the regional and global levels.” The CPI, with its independence of thought and research, combined with its composition, allows for it to identify emerging security issues, and also influence and play a useful role in global governance bodies such as the G20, the report states.

To access a free, online copy of "Global Governance and the Challenge of Transnational Organized Crime: The Role of the Constructive Powers," please click here. The report is based on workshop discussions held in Mexico City, during September 2012, organized by the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C., the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI), and CIGI, with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. This was the second CPI workshop, following up on an event held in Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2011.

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