Reports: 'Breaking Bad' movie in the works 

“Breaking Bad” — the movie — is coming. A movie set in the so-called “Breaking Bad” universe is expected to begin production in Albuquerque this month and will be written and directed by original “Bad” showrunner Vince Gilligan, according to reports.

This will be the second “Bad” spinoff — the first, of course, was “Better Call Saul,” which recently wrapped a fourth season.

The Albuquerque Journal said the New Mexico Film Office — which has worked closely with the “Bad” and “Saul” production teams over a decade — confirmed the movie, which has the working title "Greenbrier."

The most obvious and important question: Will Walter White — Bryan Cranston — return? Neither the Journal nor The Hollywood Reporter confirmed casting (or whether “Greenbrier” will be a sequel or prequel). Cranston begins an 18-week run at Manhattan's Belasco Theatre as the lead in “Network” starting Saturday. Aaron Paul, who played Jesse Pinkman, has joined the cast of “Westworld” which has yet to begin production on its third season.

Even five years after it wrapped, “Breaking Bad” — about a high school chemistry teacher turned methamphetamine manufacturer — remains a worldwide cultural phenomenon due in part to Netflix, where it streams and where new fans continue to discover it. A movie, either theatrical or for TV, has long been considered a possibility.

Coincidentally — or fortuitously — Cranston appeared on "The Dan Patrick Show" Wednesday, where he said, “If Vince Gilligan asked me to do it, sure, absolutely. He’s a genius.”

Cranston, according to a transcript of the interview posted in The Wrap, told Patrick he had spoken with Gilligan about the movie, "but I, honestly, have not even read the script."

Of "Breaking Bad," the series, he said: “It’s a great story, and there’s a lot of people who felt that they wanted to see some kind of completion to these storylines that were left open, and this idea, from what I’m told, gets into those. At least a couple of the characters who were not completed, as far as their journey.”

One of those "not completed" is Jesse, last seen driving off into the night. The other, in fact, may be Walter, too. He's last seen slipping the bounds of consciousness, and, perhaps, mortality.

Perhaps. We never learned whether Tony Soprano died either.  

By Verne J Gay

Verne.Gay@newsday.com@vernejgay

Verne J Gay is the television critic