Breaking Bad convinced everyone that Bryan Cranston could carry a project in a lead role. He has the lead role again on Trumbo, a period film about the Hollywood Blacklist and writer Dalton Trumbo.
Cranston joined the film in September 2013 as his first post-Breaking Bad role. It was written by John McNamara and based on Bruce Cook’s book. Jay Roach, who is also set to direct Cranston in All The Way for HBO, directed the movie.
Trumbo was among the writers Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios amid fears that communism was running rampant in the studio system. The writer, who won two Oscars while writing under a front during the 1950s. The blacklist wasn’t broken until 1960, when Trumbo was hired to write Kirk Douglas’ production of Spartacus and Otto Preminger’s Exodus.
The star-studded cast for Trumbo also includes Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, John Goodman as producer Frank King, Diane Lane as Cleo Trumbo, Elle Fanning as Nikola Trumbo and Louis C.K. as Arlen Hird. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Stephen Root, Michael Stuhlbarg, Roger Bart, Dean O’Gorman and David James Elliott co-star.
Trumbo opens on Nov. 6.
photo courtesy of Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Bleecker Street Films