Trumbo

Trumbo is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Jay Roach and written by John McNamara. The film stars Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Dean O'Gorman as Kirk Douglas, and David James Elliott as John Wayne. The film follows the life of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and is based on the 1977 biography Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Alexander Cook. The film was shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2015, and was released on November 6, 2015, by Bleecker Street. The film received generally positive reviews, with Bryan Cranston being nominated for several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor. Plot Dalton Trumbo is a screenwriter whose talent places him among the elite of Hollywood. However, his active membership in the Communist Party of the USA draws the contempt of staunchly anti-Soviet entertainment-industry figures such as columnist Hedda Hopper and actor John Wayne. Trumbo is one of 10 screenwriters subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) regarding Communist propaganda in Hollywood films. They refuse to directly answer questions, confident that a liberal majority on the Supreme Court will overturn their convictions for contempt of Congress. Trumbo's friend Edward G. Robinson, who supports the cause, sells Vincent van Gogh's 1887 painting Portrait of Père Tanguy to raise money for their legal defense fund. The unexpected deaths of Justices Wiley Rutledge and Frank Murphy ruin Trumbo's plan to appeal. In 1950, Trumbo serves 11 months in Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky.