Bryan Cranston Goes All the Way as LBJ on HBO
Bryan Cranston will be reprising his Tony winning performance as President Lyndon B. Johnson on HBO in All the Way.
Bryan Cranston is currently preparing to promote his performance as Dalton Trumbo, the famous screenwriter of Roman Holiday and Spartacus who was blacklisted for his political beliefs by HUAC. Indeed, the trailer for the film looked quite impressive yesterday. Yet, he is already looking to return to 20th century history again by reprising a role on HBO that’s already won him a Tony on Broadway: Lyndon B. Johnson in All the Way.
As the toast of Broadway in 2014, Bryan Cranston starred as President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Texan Democrat whose administration was both celebrated for the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the addition of Medicaid to the Social Security Act, while also being reviled for its role in escalating the Vietnam War, which left over 58,000 Americans dead.
The HBO version of All the Way is being adapted for the screen by the playwright Robert Schenkkan (who also has written in the past for HBO’s The Pacific). The HBO film version will also star Anthony Mackie as Martin Luther King Jr., Melissa Leo as Lady Bird Johnson, Bradley Whitford as Hubert Humphrey, Stephen Root as J. Edgar Hoover, Marque Richardson as Bob Moses, Aisha Hinds as Fanny Lou Hamer, Todd Weeks as Walter Jenkins, Mo MacRae as Stokely Carmiachel, Spencer Garrett as Walter Reuther, and Frank Langella as Sen. Richard Russell.
All the Way focuses on Johnson’s first year in the Oval Office after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, and primarily tracks the battle to pass the landmark Civil Rights bill.
Intriguingly, Schenkkan’s All the Way should offer a curious counterpoint to Selma, the terrific MLK biopic film from last year that focused on the passage of the Voting Rights Act—and which left many skeptical about its portrayal of Lyndon Johnson as a direct antagonist to Martin Luther King Jr., including the discredited suggestion that Johnson requested J. Edgar Hoover to spy on King and disseminate audio of his infidelities.
All the Way will be produced for HBO by Amblin Television, Tale Told Productions, and Moonshot Entertainment, with Steven Spielberg, Robert Schenkkan, Jay Roach, Bryan Cranston, Darryl Frank, and Justin Falvey executive producing.