Sneak Peek: Bryan Cranston As Trumbo
“Trumbo,” to be released this autumn, was filmed last fall in Louisiana, and stars Bryan Cranston as Trumbo, one of the most prolific and honored screenwriters in Hollywood history. Costars include Diane Lane, Elle Fanning. Helen Mirren and John Goodman. Dalton Trumbo is renowned for having used “fronts†or having otherwise taken no screen credit for scripts written during his blacklisted period in the ’50s. Kirk Douglas, who claimed credit for being the first to hire Trumbo under his own name on “Spartacus,” is played by Dean O’Gorman; Otto Preminger, portrayed by Christian Berkel, paid Trumbo the same respect when he gave Trumbo public screen credit for his work on “Exodus.” Preminger’s film came out two months after “Spartacus” but who stepped up first? Douglas states on a Criterion commentary track that he provided a drive-on pass for Trumbo during the filming of “Spartacus” in late ’59 or early ’60. David James Elliott plays Trumbo enemy and rightie rabble-rouser John Wayne.
