2005–2012: Broadway and film roles
In the spring of 2005, Schreiber played the role of Richard Roma in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross. David Rooney of Variety praised his ability to make the role his own writing, "Perhaps even more impressive is Schreiber, who boldly erases any residue of either Al Pacino in the movie or Joe Mantegna in the original Broadway cast as supremely confident Roma." Schreiber went on to win the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. In 2006, Schreiber was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In the fall of that year, he directed and starred in the "2006 Join the Fight" AIDS campaign for Cable Positive and Kismet Films (others involved with the campaign included actress Naomi Watts, fashion designer Calvin Klein, and playwright Tony Kushner). Schreiber played Charlie Townsend in the 2006 film The Painted Veil, starring opposite Watts and Edward Norton. The film was adapted from the W. Somerset Maugham 1925 novel of the same name. In the same year, Schreiber also played Robert Thorn with Julia Stiles in the 2006 film The Omen, a remake of the 1976 horror classic. On television, the actor appeared on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2006–07 season), portraying Michael Keppler, a seasoned CSI with a strong reputation in various police departments across the nation, before temporarily replacing Gil Grissom (played by William Petersen) on the veteran Las Vegas team. Schreiber joined the cast on January 18, 2007, and shot a four-episode arc. He played a social worker in the HBO film Lackawanna Blues based on the play of the same name by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. He acted opposite S. Epatha Merkerson, Jeffrey Wright, Terrence Howard, Louis Gossett Jr., Carmen Ejogo, and Michael K. Williams.
From June to July 2006, he played the title role in Macbeth opposite Jennifer Ehle at the Delacorte Theater. Variety critic David Rooney praised his performance, writing: "The complexities behind Macbeth's surrender to evil and to overpowering destiny are compellingly embodied in Schreiber's contained performance". He appeared in the Broadway revival of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, portraying shock jock Barry Champlain. The show began previews at the Longacre Theatre on February 15, 2007, in preparation for its March opening. On May 11, 2007, he won the Drama League Award for distinguished performance in Talk Radio, and has received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for the role. The New York Times' Ben Brantley called his performance "the most lacerating portrait of a human meltdown this side of a Francis Bacon painting." Schreiber played the womanizing Lotario Thurgot in Mike Newell's 2007 screen adaptation of Love in the Time of Cholera,. In a January 2007 interview, Schreiber mentioned that he was working on a screenplay. Late in 2008, Schreiber portrayed Jewish resistance fighter Zus Bielski in the film Defiance, alongside Daniel Craig. In 2009, Schreiber played the mutant supervillain Victor Creed in the Marvel Comics film X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
In 2009 Schreiber took the role of the head of the CIA in the action thriller film Salt starring Angelina Jolie which was a commercial box office hit. That same year he acted the musical comedy-drama Taking Woodstock directed by Ang Lee based on the memoir, Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life. It premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews. He is also the voice of HBO's Sports of the 20th Century documentaries. He is the narrator of HBO Boxing's Countdown and 24/7 documentary series. He narrated Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals and Broad Street Bullies in 2010 as well as Runnin' Rebels of UNLV in 2011, on HBO, and provided the narration for the "Making of Pumping Iron" documentary included in a special anniversary edition of the film Pumping Iron. He also narrated the History Channel specials Ape to Man, The Lost Kennedy Home Movies, and America: The Story of Us. Schreiber reprised his role as narrator for HBO's 24/7: Road to the Winter Classic NHL documentary, which followed the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals as they prepared to face each other in the 2011 NHL Winter Classic at Heinz Field, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 1, 2011. Schreiber has been the narrator in HBO's Hard Knocks for every season, except for the 2007 season when Paul Rudd filled that role, with the Kansas City Chiefs.
In March 2010, he expressed interest in returning for Scream 4, portraying Cotton Weary a fourth time (the film was subsequently made without his involvement). In 2010, he returned to Broadway playing Eddie Carbone, the tragic protagonist in the revival of the Arthur Miller play A View from the Bridge acting opposite Scarlett Johansson. Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised him writing, "Mr. Schreiber registers changes in emotional temperature with organic physical precision". He received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play losing to Denzel Washington for the August Wilson revival Fences. He also narrated the 2011 documentary Hitler's G.I. Death Camp on the National Geographic Channel. Released in 2012, Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald was narrated by Schreiber, as was the 2013 documentary Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve. He provided the voiceover for the 2018 Kia Stinger GT commercial. Once again, Schreiber was the narrator for the HBO series, 24/7: Road to the Winter Classic. That year, the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers battled in the Classic, at Citizens Bank Park in the 2012 NHL Winter Classic. Once more, Schreiber narrated for the HBO series in 2014 for the 2014 NHL Winter Classic, which showcased the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan.