Shane Black (Iron Man 3) may have locked himself quite a duo for his next film. The Wrap is reporting that the writer-director is close to nabbing Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling for noir film, The Nice Guys. Black wrote with script with Anthony Bagarozzi a few years ago, but the movie was stuck in neutral until it found some recent momentum- probably due, in no small part, to Black’s $1.2 billion IM3 last year.

The Wrap describes the plot like this:

“Set in smoggy 1970s Los Angeles, story follows Jackson 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.”

Black has an affinity for writing films about unlikely partners, which is easy to see from his work on the Lethal Weapon franchise, and his underrated gem Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. This could be a good one to watch out for, especially if he does land Crowe and Gosling. Crowe may have a scheduling conflict that rules him out, but we’ll see how this plays out.