Just the words South Central will conjure up an image of mean streets and gangs, even by people who don't live in Los Angeles. The neighborhood is infamous for its hardened criminals and its gang-banger imagery has permeated the popular culture everywhere. Director David Ayer returns to the neighborhood he knows well in his latest film End of Watch, starring Jake Gyllenhaal (who is also an executive producer) and Michael Peña who give gripping performances as LAPD cops Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala tackling a better armed group of very tough group - both guys and gals. Ayer grew up in the neighborhood and knows the people he's brought to the big screen well. South Central was the setting for his first directorial feature, Harsh Times back in 2005. And LAPD cops were at the heart of his 2008 pic Street Kings. Ayer told ML that he initially wanted to move away from the cop-crime scenario after working on those films, but headed back to the genre even as he was trying to talk himself out of it.
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Actor Michael Peña is set for what is likely his biggest starring role to date in director David Ayer's End of Watch. In the pic opening this weekend, he plays opposite Jake Gyllenhaal as a pair of good-guy but rough-and-tumble L.A. cops who face the complicated mean streets of the city's gang-ridden South Central neighborhood. At the Toronto International Film Festival where the film debuted earlier this month, Peña recalled his life growing up in a similarly rough are of Chicago, crediting sports and a former girlfriend who landed him a job at a bank for keeping the lure of gangs at bay. And, he hinted that his ego may have also played into his decision for a different life, which quickly took him to Hollywood.
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Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are two L.A. cops who are on a hit list after they confiscate a drug gang's cache of bling, firearms and cash during a traffic stop in one of the city's most notorious precincts in the upcoming crime drama End of Watch. In this first clip from the film, a clean-shaven (and smooth skulled) Gyllenhaal and Peña share a moment of levity while on patrol with some chatty back-and-forths about each setting each other up on dates.
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