Since the US government passed the Bryan Cranston Employment Act a few months ago, it has been decided that not a week must pass without news of the talented thesp getting another gig. So now, a short time after we were disappointed to learn that scheduling conflicts would keep him out of crime drama The Gangster Squad, there’s word that he’s scored a “small but flashy” role in zombie conflict epic World War Z.
The Hollywood Reporter has it that Cranston is on board the film in an unspecified part, which will find him appearing alongside Brad Pitt.
And besides the fact that he’s brilliant and deserves every job he gets, there might just be another reason that director Marc Forster has nabbed Cranston. World War Z has taken talent from three of US TV network AMC’s shows, with Mireille Enos (The Killing) and James Badge Dale (Rubicon) already aboard. Surely work for Mad Men’s Jon Hamm and The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln can be found so the movie has the complete set? Plus, Lincoln already has a lot of experience with zombies, so there’s that.
Adapted from Max Brooks’ novel about the investigation that follows a massive war against the stumbling undead, **World War Z **features a script by Matthew Michael Carnahan and J Michael Straczynski. Forster is busy cranking the cameras right now.
For those of you at home keeping a tally of Cranston’s roles to date, he will appear in (deep breath), Drive, Contagion, Total Recall, Red Tails, John Carter **and **Rock of Ages, and he’s also in talks for Ben Affleck’s hostage drama Argo. All that and he continues to cook up solid work on AMC drug drama Breaking Bad…