ET has an exclusive look at the new biopic starring Bryan Cranston as the famed screenwriter, who was blacklisted in the 1950s.
While Roman Holiday
is considered a classic, the story behind the scenes is almost legendary. And
the new film, Trumbo, starring Bryan
Cranston as the titular award-winning screenwriter, gives fans a look at how
the Audrey Hepburn film came together.
The new movie details the period when Dalton Trumbo -- who at
one point was the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood -- was blacklisted for
his alignment with the Communist Party. After refusing to testify before
Congress about whether he or other people in the industry planted propaganda in
U.S. films, Trumbo was shut out. By 1950, the screenwriter was penning scripts
under various pseudonyms -- even winning an Academy Award.
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In ET’s exclusive clip from Trumbo, the writer is seen convincing Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan
Tudyk) to take credit for The Princess
and the Peasant, which later became known as Roman Holiday.
As to why the title changed? “It sounds like a puppet show,”
Hunter laments.
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While the character is far from Walter White, his career-making
role on AMC’s Breaking Bad, Cranston
admits this real-life alter ego was just as complex.
“Trumbo was a great guy to get involved in," Cranston tells
ET Canada. “Troubled, confusing, complex... just an interesting guy to get in
his skin.”
Just because he likes these troubled heroes, don’t expect
the 59-year-old actor to return to White anytime soon. "I don't have a
yearning to go back into [Walter's] world because we just covered it completely
I think,” he says.