Byran Cranston Stars As Blacklisted Screenwriter in First 'Trumbo' Trailer
By Dave McNary
Recently launched distributor Bleecker Street has released the first trailer for Bryan Cranston’s Trumbo, two-and-a-half months before its Nov. 6 launch in the U.S.
The film is based on the true story of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Cranston), who had been one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters before he was forced to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947. When he refused to cooperate, he was sent to prison for 11 months.
In the trailer, Cranston plays Trumbo as a chainsmoker with ample reservoirs of sarcasm and resourcefulness. “Many questions can be answered ‘yes or no’ only by a moron or a slave,” he tells the committee.
Trumbo turned to ghost-writing scripts in response to being blacklisted and was publicly credited in 1960 with Exodus, followed by Spartacus. “If we get one big movie, we can get all the big movies,” Cranston notes in the trailer.
Helen Mirren co-stars as Trumbo’s nemesis, columnist Hedda Hopper. Elle Fanning, Diane Lane, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg and Louis C.K. co-star in the pic, directed by Jay Roach.
Michael London’s Groundswell Prods. produces in association with Shivani Rawat, Monica Levinson and Nimitt Mankad through ShivHans Pictures. Bleecker Street, headed by Andrew Karpen, launched last summer and took on distribution of the ShivHans titles.
Trumbo won an Oscar for The Brave One under the name Robert Rich. In 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Oscar for writing Roman Holiday.
