Dalton Trumbo

For reasons unknown -- since it's a subject I'm very interested in -- it turns out that there's not only a new movie about screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, but it's set to be released in November.  Moreover, it has an impressive cast, starting with Bryan Cranston in the lead role.

Dalton Trumbo was an outspoken and extremely successful screenwriter, one of the highest paid in Hollywood, whose credits included Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Kitty Foyle, which got him an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay.  He also wrote A Guy Named Joe, which got remade as Always, directed by Steven Spielberg.  Then, he got blacklisted during the McCarthy Era -- in fact, more than blacklisted, he was one of the Hollywood Ten who went to prison.

He continued writing, however, just not under his own name.  Some he wrote under pseudonyms (about 30 of those, after moving to Mexico), some using a "front," someone else pretending to be the screenwriter on behalf of the hidden, blacklisted writer.  (If you haven't seen the movie, The Front that Woody Allen made a rare starring role in a film he didn't write or direct, I highly recommend it.)  Among the films he wrote but was uncredited for was The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, with Gary Cooper. Most notably, 58 years after the fact, in 2011 the WGA finally had enough researched evidence to grant him his full screen credit for the classic Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.  He received belated screen credit for other films he'd written during that period, such as The Brave One. 

Both Roman Holiday and The Brave One won the Academy Award for screenwriting, but the Oscars were presented.to others since Trumbo was under the blacklist at the time and didn't receive screen credit.  Trumbo was finally presented with the Oscar for The Brave One, not long before he died in 1976.  His widow received his Oscar when that injustice was eventually corrected.

Also, it was Trumbo who helped break the blacklist.  That was when Otto Preminger publicly announced that Trumbo had written the film, Exodus -- and Kirk Douglas said that Trumbo wrote Spartacus.  Famously, President Kennedy crossed a picket line set up by the reactionary American Legion to see the film.

After finally surviving the blacklist and returning to Hollywood, Dalton Trumbo wrote such films as Lonely are teh Brave, The Sandpiper, Hawaii and Papillon, among many others.  There even is a report that Steven Spielberg may direct Montezum, based on Trumbo's unproduced screenplay.

In addition to Bryan Cranston, the film of Trumbo also features John Goodman, Diane Lane, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning and Helen Mirren.  It was written by John McNama, based on the book by Bruce Cook.  And at least from the trailer, it looks wonderful.