Bryan Cranston in Talks to Join 'World War Z' (Exclusive)

Bryan Cranston is in negotiations to join Paramount's World War Z, a post-apocalyptic thriller starring Brad Pitt.

The role for the star of AMC's Breaking Bad is said to be small but flashy; little is known about the part. The film is an adaptation of a Max Brooks novel of the same name that depicts a global zombie takeover a decade after the fact. Marc Forster is directing. 

The film, from Skydance Productions, features a cast that includes a current AMC cohort of Cranston's in Mireille Enos, star of The Killing; and James Badge Dale, who appeared on AMC's now defunct Rubicon.

Z, written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and J. Michael Straczynski, is currently in production and will be released in 2012. 

Cranston, a three-time Emmy winner for Bad, is also slated to appear in forthcoming rock musical Rock of Ages, which also features Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The New Line project is in production and slated for release June 2012. He is also in talks to join Ben Affleck's Argo, a political thriller centered on the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis. 

Cranston is represented by UTA.

Email: Daniel. Miller@THR.com

Twitter: @DanielNMiller