Bryan Cranston is starring in the drama “Wakefield” with Robin Swicord directing from her own script.
Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn are producing through their Mockingbird Pictures banner with Elliot Webb co-producing.
The film is based on a short story of the same name by E.L. Doctorow — which is a retelling of a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, also called “Wakefield” about a man who unexpectedly leaves his wife for an extended period of time.
Cranston revealed the casting on a recent interview on “The Howard Stern Radio Show,” explaining that he will play a married Manhattan lawyer who sees a racoon in the attic of his home and winds up staying in the attic for several months due to a nervous breakdown. He also said his character will become romantically involved with a younger woman at some point in the story.
Cranston also said in the interview that filming would take about four weeks and that he had agreed to do film for “scale” — the minimum salary under the SAG-AFTRA master contract.
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Cranston won four Emmys for “Breaking Bad.” He is currently starring in “Trumbo,” and will next appear in HBO’s “All the Way” as Lyndon B. Johnson and in Broad Green’s drug-sting drama “The Infiltrator.”
Swicord’s screenplay credits include “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Jane Austen Book Club,” which she also directed.
Curtis worked on “Minority Report,” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and “Albert Nobbs.” She and Lynn produced “Last Days in the Desert,” starring Ewan McGregor.
Cranston is repped by UTA and attorney P.J. Shapiro of Ziffren Brittenham. Swicord is repped by UTA and attorney Ken Richman of Hanson Jackoway Teller Hoberman Newman Warren Rush and Kaller.