He’s busy breaking our hearts in Heisenbergian style as the finale of Breaking Bad looms ever closer. But for an upcoming film gig, the man behind the goatee, Bryan Cranston, will be playing someone altogether more moral. He’s signed on to Trumbo, taking the lead role of blacklisted Hollywood writer Dalton Trumbo.
Jay Roach is tackling the indie drama, working from John McNamara’s script. It’ll be based on the real-life experiences of Trumbo, who was locked up in 1950 for refusing to answer questions before the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The panel was obsessed with rooting out suspected communists in Hollywood and for his refusal, Trumbo was blacklisted and refused work.
He managed to score assignments under various pseudonyms, but it wasn't until Spartacus in 1960 that he got public credit for his work again.
Cranston is currently starring as another true-life figure, president Lyndon B. Johnson in a stage production called All The Way. But he’ll be back on our screens in Godzilla, which arrives in UK cinemas on May 16 next year.
And on the subject of the so-hot-right-now Breaking Bad, the show's final two episodes will be longer than normal, running – in the US at least, given adverts –75 minutes each. So that's probably about 60 minutes on Netflix. You'd better work on growing longer nails, because you're going to need more to gnaw.