"Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston is in talks to join the cast of Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad at Warner Bros. Pictures, says Variety. He would be joining Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Anthony Mackie and Michael Peņa in the crime drama.

Adapted from a series of L.A. Times articles, Gangster Squad explores the true story of a band of secret "off the record" police task force who went after Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen, a high-profile gangster who was a member of the "Jewish Mafia" in the 1940's.

The trade says that Cranston will portray Max Kennard, a laconic LAPD officer from Texas who enforces the law ambitiously.