In a contest we can only imagine came down to either him or Bob Balaban, John Goodman is once again in talks to play a movie industry figure in Trumbo, Jay Roach’s upcoming film about blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. As previously reported, Bryan Cranston is attached to play the Roman Holiday writer, whose refusal to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee forced him into leading a double life, illicitly cooking up Oscar-winning screenplays under a pseudonym. Helen Mirren will play Hedda Hopper, the gossip columnist who persecuted Trumbo in the press by calling him a “commie”—though in a classy, Helen Mirren-ish way. And now Goodman may play Trumbo’s salvation in the form of Brave One producer Frank King, building on a lineage of Goodman’s movie industry guy roles like Matinee, The Artist, and Argo—which also saw him starring alongside Cranston. “Trumbo fuck yourself” doesn’t have the same ring to it, unfortunately.
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