Bryan Cranston has joined Angelina Jolie and Sam Rockwell in The One and Only Ivan, Disney’s adaptation of the Newbery Medal-winning book written by Katherine Applegate. Thea Sharrock, director of the tearjerker Me Before You, is helming the live-action/CG hybrid, which also has The Florida Project breakout Brooklynn Prince and Ariana Greenblatt, one of the stars of Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle, on the call sheet.
Published by HarperCollins in 2011, the book centers on a silverback gorilla named Ivan (Rockwell) who lives in a cage in a shopping mall along with an elephant named Stella (Jolie) and a stray dog called Bob. Ivan does not remember life before the mall, but when a baby elephant named Ruby enters and Ivan finds himself taking care of her, he begins to rediscover his previous life and concocts a plan to take the baby elephant away from their abusive owner.
Cranston will play the desperate owner of a failing circus.
Mike White wrote the script. Jolie is producing along with Brigham Taylor. Allison Shearmur, who recently died, will retain a producer credit on the movie.
Cranston, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work in Trumbo, is currently on the London stage at the National Theatre starring in Network, the adaptation of the 1970s classic Paddy Chayefsky film. He also voices a character in Wes Anderson’s stop-motion movie Isle of Dogs, which opens March 23.
