Bryan Cranston is one of the best actors working today. Not best actors in TV, but best actors period, and it’s nice to see him making the jump to film. His turn as Walter White on Breaking Bad has been scary good, and his performance I would argue is actually better than the writing of the show sometimes.
His latest foray into feature films will be for Ben Affleck’s ARGO, where Affleck is both directing and starring, hoping to repeat the success of THE TOWN. I thought for a brief moment this film was going to be about Jason and the Argonauts, but not so, it’s the story of a hostage rescue that took place in Iran in the 70s.
Cranston is being brought in to play an Irish CIA operative name Jack O’Donnell who was Eisenhower’s bodyguard in the years before the hostage crisis in Iran. He joins the recently added Tony Mendez, John Goodman and Alan Arkin to round out the cast, and hopefully Affleck can go 3 for 3 in his first trio of directorial efforts.
Cranston will also show up in JOHN CARTER (once OF MARS), and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him added to more films shortly. I hear THE HUNGER GAMES just cast its 500th role.