Trumbo (2015 Jay Roach)

Writer John McNamara (lots of previous TV writing / producing) met Ring Lardner Jr, Ian Mclellan Hunter and other blacklisted writers in the eighties where Trumbo was still on everyone's lips as the man who had stoically and humorously ended the blacklist. He optioned Bruce Cook's autobiography and it was financed by independent ShivHans ('we produce and finance films that don't always fit into the typical Hollywood studio model' - indeed).  It made $16 million - don't know what the budget was, though.

Great cast: Bryan Cranston (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee), that Michael Stuhlbarg fellow again* (as Edward G.), Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K. (fellow jailed writer made up for the film), David James Elliott (John Wayne), John Goodman, Elle Fanning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Dean O'Goram (Kirk Douglas), Christian Berkel (Otto Preminger).

It's quite a story, and makes a terrific film, particularly for film buffs.

Great music by Theodore Shapiro (tons of scores from State and Main on). Shot by Jim Denault (currently The Looming Tower). Editor Alan Baumgarten. Production designer Mark Ricker (it was filmed in New Orleans!)

Ahh... so that's why the Gun Crazy poster is up on Goodman's office wall - Trumbo wrote it! And Terror in a Texas Town. And Losey's The Prowler. So he's not actually credited with the dozens of screenplays he must have worked on. And Cowboy...  Later screenplays include Lonely Are the Brave, Johnny Got His Gun (he'd written the novel in the forties) Papillon and Always.

* He's great, isn't he? A real character actor. We saw him recently in Hugo but look at this credit list - The Looming Towers, Traitors, The Shape of Water, Call Me By Your Name, Fargo (Season 3), Doctor Strange, Steve Jobs, Boardwalk Empire, Blue Jasmine, Hitchcock, Lincoln, Seven Psychopaths, A Serious Man, Cold Souls - even Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. People must like him.