The cast of upcoming period drama “Trumbo” came out in style for the film’s New York City screening on Tuesday.
Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren and Diane Lane were joined by a host of Hollywood stars at the classy event held at MoMA Titus One at Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art.
They were joined by co-stars Michael Stuhlbarg and Louis CK, supermodel Elle Macpherson and TV actress Dana Delany. Veteran comedy actor John Goodman also appears in the movie.
“Trumbo” tells the real-life story of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo‘s (Cranston) as he fights to make movies during the Red Scare in 1940s and ’50s Hollywood.
Mirren plays one of the best known gossip columnists of the era, Hedda Hopper, who was famous for both her fashionable hats and her habit of “naming names” of suspected Communists.
Two-time Oscar winner Trumbo, whose remarkable body of work included scripts for “Roman Holiday,” “Kitty Foyle” and “Spartacus,” was a man who spoke in a declamatory style — “like everything you say is going to be chiseled in stone,” as one character complains.
“He was a very theatrical man,” Cranston said during a Q&A at Toronto International Film Festival in September, “and I was worried about going too big.”
The film is directed by Jay Roach, who is also producer on the upcoming Tina Fey and Amy Poehler movie “Sisters.”
John McNamara wrote the screenplay based on Bruce Cook’s book, and producers include Michael London, Janice Williams, Shivani Rawat, Monica Levinson, Nimitt Mankad, John McNamara and Kevin Kelly Brown. Kelly Mullen is executive producer and Michelle Graham co-producer. Bleecker Street is distributing.
Academy and guild voters in Hollywood love movies about Hollywood, which could give “Trumbo” a boost come awards season.
The film is rife with stars and moguls, most notably Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Christian Berkel as the imperious director Otto Preminger, David James Elliott as John Wayne and a convincing Dean O’Gorman as Kirk Douglas, who helped end the blacklist by putting Trumbo’s name on “Spartacus.”
Elle Macpherson and Dana Delaney/Getty Images
“Trumbo” hits theaters on Nov. 6 in limited release.
19 Must-See Movies at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival (Photos)
With 289 features playing at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, picking favorites can be impossible. But here are some on TheWrap's to-do list
Courtesy of TIFF
"Trumbo"
Director Jay Roach has found a niche in political movies for HBO, and here he tackles the Hollywood blacklist with Bryan Cranston as banned author and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and Helen Mirren as powerful gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
Groundswell Productions
"I Saw the Light"
British actor Tom Hiddleston has the lean, haunted look to play country music icon Hank Williams, but can he nail the voice in Marc Abraham’s biopic?
Sony Pictures Classics
"Where to Invade Next"
Michael Moore hasn’t made a documentary since "Capitalism, a Love Story" six years ago, but the current political climate seems ready-made for his fiery and funny approach.
Dog Eat Dog Films
"Spotlight"
With its top-notch ensemble cast including Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams, director Tom McCarthy’s journalism procedural wowed audiences in Venice and Telluride with its depiction of a team of Boston Globe reporters uncovering the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal.
Anonymous Content
"Beasts of No Nation"
It’s reportedly hard to watch, but Cary Fukanaga’s child-soldier drama has early critics throwing around comparisons to "Apocalypse Now."
Red Crown Productions
"Freeheld"
Peter Sollett’s timely true story of a lesbian couple in New Jersey who went to court to fight for pension rights stars Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, a formidable team.
Double Feature Films
"Every Thing Will Be Fine"
After he made the brilliant 3D dance documentary "Pina," German director Wim Wenders said he was going to make an intimate 3D drama – and the result is this film, which stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rachel McAdams and James Franco, who apparently must by law have at least one film in every film festival.
IFC Films
"The Martian"
Is Ridley Scott’s space odyssey a popcorn movie, or a true awards contender? TIFF audiences will be the first to decide.
Twentieth Century Fox
"Room"
The buzz out of Telluride is that 8-year-old Jacob Tremblay is a revelation, and maybe an awards contender, for his role in Lenny Abrahamson’s dark drama about a boy raised inside a small room where he and his mother (Brie Larson) are imprisoned.
Reactions from Venice and Telluride say the violence is brutal but Johnny Depp is great (and a strong Oscar contender) as mobster Whitey Bulger, making Scott Cooper’s drama a hot ticket.
Warner Bros
"Un Plus Une"
French director Claude Lelouch, best-known for his 1996 film "A Man and a Woman," is working with "The Artist" star (and Oscar winner) Jean Dujardin in a story about a film composer finding love on a trip to India.
Les Films 13
"Anomalisa"
Charlie Kaufman, the writer of "Being John Malkovich" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," made his directorial debut with the thorny "Synecdoche, New York" seven years ago, and his second film (a collaboration with Duke Johnson) is a stop-motion animation production that sounds just as odd and intriguing as his past work.
Front Row Filmed Entertainment
"The Program"
On the heels of the Oscar-nominated "Philomena," director Stephen Frears turns his sights to the Lance Armstrong saga, with Ben Foster as the disgraced cyclist.
StudioCanal
"Stonewall"
Roland Emmerich, the director best known for disaster epics like "Independence Day," gets serious and intimate with the story of the game-changing 1969 New York City riots that helped launch the gay rights movement.
Roadside Attractions
"Heart of a Dog"
Laurie Anderson’s first film in almost 30 years is ostensibly about her dog, but fans of the musician and performance artist know it’ll really be about far, far more than that.
Abramorama
"The Danish Girl"
Tom Hooper’s "The King’s Speech" had a coronation of sorts in Toronto on its way to winning Best Picture, giving his transgender drama with Eddie Redmayne a high bar to reach.
Focus Features
“Desierto”
Writer-director Jonás Cuarón was working on this script when he joined his father Alfonso and took a detour to make the Oscar-winning “Gravity,” but this tale of tensions along the U.S./Mexican border couldn't be timelier.
Esperanto Kino
“Thru You Princess”
Ido Haar’s documentary has one of TIFF’s wildest true stories: Israeli musician Kutiman, who assembles videos from the work of amateur performers he finds on YouTube, in the process making an unlikely star out of a New Orleans caregiver who posts her own videos under the name Princess Shaw.
Courtesy of TIFF
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With 289 features playing at this year’s TIFF, picking favorites can be impossible. But here are some standouts on TheWrap’s to-do list
With 289 features playing at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, picking favorites can be impossible. But here are some on TheWrap's to-do list