Shane Black is making a noir mystery that might star Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe

If every movie ever made is to be believed, Los Angeles gets more than its share of mysterious murders. Whether its serial killers, gangsters, or whatever, there’s always someone killing someone else under suspicious circumstances. Luckily, there’s also always a hardboiled detective who will do whatever it takes to solve the crime.

According to The Wrap, Iron Man 3 director Shane Black’s next movie is going to proudly follow this tradition. Titled The Nice Guys, the story—set in 1970s Los Angeles—follows an alcoholic private investigator named Holland March and a formerly alcoholic tough guy named Jackson Healy as they try to make sense of the apparent suicide of a porn star. Along the way, they run into the girl’s aunt—who claims to have seen her alive—and some kind of conspiracy involving the U.S. auto industry.

Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are reportedly being sought to star, but we think it’s surprisingly difficult to guess which of the two guys they’d be. Crowe just has that look of a recovering alcoholic who will beat you up for clues, but Gosling certainly kicked a lot of Los Angeles ass in Drive. Or maybe they can just switch who plays which character throughout the movie, like in Lethal Weapon 5. It seems like it might be a fun dynamic either way, assuming both actors do sign on.