Neuigkeiten

Born in 1920, Walter Matthau was a celebrated performer on both the stage and screen, known for his gruff, rumpled persona. Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Matthau turned to acting after serving in the United States Army Air Force during WWII. He became a frequent presence on the small screen with appearances in “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Goodyear Playhouse,” and “The Du Pont Show of the Week” (which brought him an Emmy bid in 1963), to name a few. During this period he also appeared in several films, few of them comedies, including “A Face in the Crowd” (1957) and “Fail Safe” (1964).

At the same time, he gained increasing respect as a stage actor with Tony Award-winning performances in “A Shot in the Dark” (Featured Actor in a Play in 1962) and “The Odd Couple” (Actor in a Play in 1965). It was in the latter role of Oscar Madison,...

One of 2024’s obsessions is “Feud: “Capote vs. the Swans.” The FX on Hulu limited series revolves around the best-selling novelist Truman Capote‘s friendship with several of the highest of New York’s society women include Babe Paley, Slim Keith and Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The women treat him as a sort of father confessor, but when he publishes an excerpt from what he considers his will be his masterwork “Answered Prayers” in Esquire — a thinly veiled account of their lives and secrets –they feel betrayed and turn their back on their once trusted friend. He spends the rest of his life trying to get back into their good graces.

Everyone knows Capote wrote “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his superb “In Cold Blood” and was a witty albeit inebriated guest on countless talk shows, but how much do you really know about him?

Capote was...

Accomplished actor Piper Laurie, known for her Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning work, has sadly passed away.

Per THR, Laurie died on Saturday morning in Los Angeles at the age of 91. A representative for the actor noted that Laurie "had not been well for some time." Survivors include Laurie's daughter, Anna.

Laurie has been widely celebrated for her work as an actor. One of her most popular roles was as Margaret White, mother to Sissy Spacek's titular character, in Brian De Palma's 1976 film Carrie, an adaptation of a Stephen King novel. For the role, Laurie had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. That followed a previous nomination for Best Actress with her role opposite Paul Newman in 1961's The Hustler. Laurie would later earn a third Oscar nomination with her role in the 1986 movie Children of a Lesser God.

With her small screen work, Laurie is also an Emmy winner.

Piper Laurie, who blossomed as an actress only after extricating herself from the studio system and went on to rack up three Oscar nominations, has died. She was 91.

Laurie’s manager Marion Rosenberg confirmed the news to Variety, writing, “A beautiful human being and one of the great talents of our time.”

Laurie scored her first Oscar nomination for her work opposite Paul Newman in 1961’s classic poolhall drama “The Hustler,” in which she played an alcoholic who memorably tells Newman’s character, “Look, I’ve got troubles and I think maybe you’ve got troubles. Maybe it’d be better if we just leave each other alone.”

Though she informally retired to raise a family for more than a decade, she returned to film and television in the mid-’70s and racked up an impressive roster of characterizations, including Oscar-nominated turns in “Carrie” and in “Children of a Lesser God,...

Donald Petrie's "Grumpy Old Men" was released in theaters on Christmas Day in 1993, serving as that year's "take your parents to see it" film. Prior to "Grumpy Old Men," the film's two stars, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, had appeared in five films together, including "The Fortune Cookie," Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple," "Kotch," "The Front Page," and "Buddy Buddy." The two were so well known for their chemistry, they were often considered one of comedy's great, prevailing duos. To this day, they are often mentioned together, and the two are buried not too far apart in the same cemetery in Westwood, CA.

While Lemmon and Matthau worked together regularly throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, there was a notable gap in their shared résumé. From 1981 until 1993, the pair did not work in tandem — even though they both appeared in Oliver Stone's 1991 film, "JFK," they had no scenes together.

Exclusive: Andrew Orenstein and Matt Hastings have come aboard the upcoming series Glimmerville as showrunners.

The show described as a cross between Stranger Things, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and Gravity Falls stems from an original idea on the part of producers Michael Zoumas and Charlie Matthau, which was then turned into the book Field Guide to the Supernatural Universe by #1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël.

The book set for publication this spring via Simon & Schuster is set in Glimmerville, a small town known for its incessant fog and enchanted pies. It follows a boy who longs to be normal, but must rely on his suppressed supernatural abilities to defeat an unearthly nemesis and save his town. The series adaptation has not yet been set up at a network or streamer.

“Alyson’s writing captured everything we love about the genre.

Exclusive: Filmmaker Charlie Matthau has acquired the Hillary Manton Lodge novel Jane of Austin: A Novel of Sweet Tea and Sensibility which he’ll develop and produce as a TV series.

Jane of Austin is a reworking of Sense and Sensibility, but set in modern Austin, Texas. A search for a writer is also underway.

Jane of Austin follows sisters Jane (19) and Celia (28) who find themselves forced out of their San Francisco tea shop just a few years after their father’s business scandal shatters their lives. Celia insists they move to Austin, Texas with their kid sister Margot to start over again. But life in Austin isn’t all sweet tea and breakfast tacos. Their unusual living situation is challenging and unspoken words begin to fester between Jane and Celia. When Jane meets and falls for up-and-coming musician Sean Willis, the chasm grows deeper. While Sean seems to charm everyone in his path,...

Exclusive: Producers Charlie Matthau and Michael Zoumas have secured the rights to Alyson Noël’s upcoming 2022 Simon & Schuster novel, Field Guide to the Supernatural Universe.

The book is best described as a cross between Stranger Things and Rick and Morty. Set in Glimmerville, a small town known for its incessant fog and enchanted pies, Field Guide follows a boy who longs to be normal, but must rely on his suppressed supernatural abilities to defeat an unearthly nemesis and save his town.

Noël is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of 23 novels including: The Immortals, The Riley Bloom series The Soul Seekers series, and Saving Zoë, now on Netflix.

With nine New York Times bestsellers and over 8 million copies in print, her books have been translated into 36 languages, sold in over 200 countries, and have made the New York Times, USA Today, L.A. Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal,...

Lenka Peterson, whose Broadway performances included a 1984 Tony-nominated turn in the musical Quilters, co-starring roles with Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish and Colleen Dewhurst in plays with creative teams including Truman Capote and Arthur Penn, died Sept. 24 in her sleep at home in Roxbury, Connecticut. She was 95.

Her death was announced by her family, including daughter, actress Glynnis O’Connor.

In addition to her stage work, Peterson appeared in an extensive roster of film and television projects, spanning more than 50 years beginning with a small role in director Elia Kazan’s 1950 film Panic in the Streets (Peterson was a charter member of The Actors Studio) and continuing through the 2006 remake of All The King’s Men starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet.

Born Lenka Isacson in Omaha, Nebraska, Peterson moved to New York City following World War II to pursue a stage career, and soon landed...

Lenka Peterson, the Tony-nominated actress and charter member of The Actors Studio who also worked in films including Panic in the Streets, The Phenix City Story and Dragnet, has died. She was 95.

Peterson died Sept. 24 in her sleep at her home in Roxbury, Connecticut, her family announced. Survivors include her daughter, actress Glynnis O’Connor (Ode to Billy Joe, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble).

Peterson appeared in 10 Broadway productions over a span of nearly 40 years and received her Tony nom for best featured actress in a musical in 1985 for Quilters.

She also acted in Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp in ...

Lenka Peterson, the Tony-nominated actress and charter member of The Actors Studio who also worked in films including Panic in the Streets, The Phenix City Story and Dragnet, has died. She was 95.

Peterson died Sept. 24 in her sleep at her home in Roxbury, Connecticut, her family announced. Survivors include her daughter, actress Glynnis O’Connor (Ode to Billy Joe, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble).

Peterson appeared in 10 Broadway productions over a span of nearly 40 years and received her Tony nom for best featured actress in a musical in 1985 for Quilters.

She also acted in Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp in ...

Exclusive: Filmmaker Charlie Matthau is close to finishing the independent feature The Book of Leah starring Armand Assante, which tells the story of a teenage rape victim who rebuilds herself as a karate fighter and seeks revenge on her attacker.

Brianna Joy Chomer plays Leah Gold, who after sneaking into a night club with her friends, is sexually assaulted in 1980s Chicago. The police do not take her case seriously, trying to blame Leah for being a minor, and the way she dressed. Her high-class family, embarrassed by the incident, sends Leah to a girls school, where she ultimately meets her uncle, played by four-time Golden Globe nominee Assante, who is a Holocaust survivor.

More than another female Karate Kid film, there are layers in The Book of Leah which echo a lot of what we’ve read lately about sexual assault; how alleged victims like Christine Blasey Ford and...

Actress Piper Laurie is having one of the hottest years in her nearly seven-decade career. She stars with Matthew McConaughey and Bruce Dern in the bigscreen biopic White Boy Rick, and the indie drama Snapshots earned her top honors at film fests. But success is nothing new to the 86-year-old star. Since her 1950 film debut opposite Ronald Reagan in Louisa, she's earned three Oscar nominations: for The Hustler, Children of a Lesser God and, most memorably, as a maniacal mom with a tormented teen in Carrie. But those who remember her best from that role may be surprised to learn that she overcame an equally rough childhood, including an anxiety disorder that left her unable to communicate as a child. "I've had a tough life sometimes, and a very rewarding one," Piper exclusively shared with Closer Weekly in the magazine's latest issue, on newsstands now. Now she opens up about her rendezvous with Reagan,...

Walter Matthau would’ve celebrated his 98th birthday on October 1, 2018. Born in 1920, the actor was a celebrated performer on both the stage and screen, known for his gruff, rumpled persona. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Matthau turned to acting after serving in the United States Army Air Force during WWII. He became a frequent presence on the small screen with appearances in “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Goodyear Playhouse,” and “The Du Pont Show of the Week” (which brought him an Emmy bid in 1963), to name a few. During this period he also appeared in several films, few of them comedies, including “A Face in the Crowd” (1957) and “Fail Safe” (1964).

At the same time, he gained increasing respect as a stage actor with Tony Award-winning performances in “A Shot in the Dark” (Featured Actor in a Play...

Patrick Williams, who was best-known for his Emmy-winning television music but who was also a renowned and Grammy-winning big-band jazz leader and arranger, died Wednesday morning of complications from cancer at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 79.

Williams was among the most versatile composers of his generation, earning an Oscar nomination, four Emmys and two Grammys during more than 50 years of music-making in New York and Los Angeles.

In the middle of his most prolific period, scoring music for TV including “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and “The Streets of San Francisco,” he was also nominated for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music for his groundbreaking “An American Concerto” (1976) for jazz quartet and symphony orchestra.

He scored nearly 50 films, often memorable scores for movies that were not big hits, including “Casey’s Shadow,” “The Cheap Detective” and “Cuba” in the 1970s; “Used Cars,...

Charlie Matthau is developing a six-part television series on the 1920 presidential election and hopes to have it air during the home stretch of the 2020 election, Variety has learned exclusively.

“I was struck at how similar the 1920 election was and how it contained so many parallels to the current political environment,” Matthau told Variety.

Matthau, son of the late Walter Matthau, has optioned David Pietrusza’s book “1920: The Year of the Six Presidents” through his Matthau Company. He noted that the series would run concurrently with the 100-year anniversary of the 1920 election.

“1920 is considered the first modern election and one of the most dramatic,” Matthau said. “Six once and future presidents — Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt — jockeyed for the White House. Amazing characters, amazing roles for actors.”

Harding, a Republican Senator from Ohio, defeated Democratic Governor James M. Cox of Ohio in the election,...

Exclusive: Charlie Matthau and Denise O’Dell have optioned rights to Juste De Nin’s Spanish-language graphic novel Garbo: The Spy Who Fooled Hitler, which is set to become the latest directorial vehicle for Matthau.

The film will be produced under the name Bodyguard of Lies, and tells the incredible true story of Juan Pujol Garcia, a failed Spanish chicken farmer who, incredibly, became one of the greatest, if not the most successful, spies of World War II, whose deceptive work saved what is estimated at about 14 million lives. Reuben Sack, Justin Parker, Bradley McManus and Matthau are writing the screenplay, with plans to film on location in Lisbon, Madrid and London. It will be a co-production between O’Dell’s Babieka Films and The Matthau Company.

At the recent Cannes Film Festival where they were seeking further financing for the project, Matthau told me he was seeking a comedic actor for the title role,...

In Cold Blood is one of the most horrific nonfiction novels ever written. Its frank, unsparing depiction of a small town torn apart by a pointless murder reveals awful truths about the nature of violence, and our terror of its senselessness. Knowing the brutality he describes actually occurred makes it all the more overwhelming. Capote didn’t need to draw from fact to terrify, however. Some of his short stories are equally as nightmarish as his nonfiction masterpiece, and perhaps more haunting for their liminality—often what’s real and unreal becomes indistinguishable.

Much like his more famous tales of nostalgia, such as “A Christmas Memory” or “A Jug of Silver,” Capote’s macabre pieces explore dreams or memory in a fantastical manner. The uncanny or supernatural often dances along the edges of the story—is this something phantasmal, demonic, or just insane? Where his nostalgic reveries look at charming...

Piper Laurie Keeps Her Chin Up

By Alex Simon

Few living actors can claim to have experienced the Hollywood machine in all its iterations more than three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie. Signed by Universal Pictures at 17, their youngest contract player in years, she was in the last generation that were part of the Hollywood “factory,” pushed into “cheesecake” roles that accented physical attributes, as opposed to talent. It was the beginning of a journey.

She was born Rosetta Jacobs in Detroit, Michigan, on January 22, 1932, to immigrant parents of Polish and Russian Jewish descent. When she was still five, the family sent her and her sister to a children’s sanatorium in the mountains to see if her sister’s asthma could be cured. Three years later after being reunited with her family she decided she wanted to become an actress and studied with Benno and Betomi Schneider for several years...

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 55th anniversary screening of Robert Rossen’s The Hustler. The 134-minute film, which stars Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, and both Jake Lamotta and Vincent Gardenia as bartenders, will be screened on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actress Piper Laurie, who appears in the film as Sarah Packard, is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss her role and career.

From the press release:

The Hustler

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

The Hustler (1961)

55th Anniversary Screening

Wednesday, March 16, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

Three-Time Oscar Nominee Piper Laurie in person for Q&A after the screening

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler, one of the most incisive character dramas of the 1960s, earned nine Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars,...

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 55th anniversary screening of Robert Rossen’s The Hustler. The 134-minute film, which stars Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, and both Jake Lamotta and Vincent Gardenia as bartenders, will be screened on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actress Piper Laurie, who appears in the film as Sarah Packard, is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss her role and career.

From the press release:

The Hustler

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

The Hustler (1961)

55th Anniversary Screening

Wednesday, March 16, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

Three-Time Oscar Nominee Piper Laurie in person for Q&A after the screening

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler, one of the most incisive character dramas of the 1960s, earned nine Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars,...

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 55th anniversary screening of Robert Rossen’s The Hustler. The 134-minute film, which stars Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, and both Jake Lamotta and Vincent Gardenia as bartenders, will be screened on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actress Piper Laurie, who appears in the film as Sarah Packard, is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss her role and career.

From the press release:

The Hustler

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

The Hustler (1961)

55th Anniversary Screening

Wednesday, March 16, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

Three-Time Oscar Nominee Piper Laurie in person for Q&A after the screening

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler, one of the most incisive character dramas of the 1960s, earned nine Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars,...

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 55th anniversary screening of Robert Rossen’s The Hustler. The 134-minute film, which stars Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, and both Jake Lamotta and Vincent Gardenia as bartenders, will be screened on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actress Piper Laurie, who appears in the film as Sarah Packard, is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss her role and career.

From the press release:

The Hustler

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

The Hustler (1961)

55th Anniversary Screening

Wednesday, March 16, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

Three-Time Oscar Nominee Piper Laurie in person for Q&A after the screening

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler, one of the most incisive character dramas of the 1960s, earned nine Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars,...

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 55th anniversary screening of Robert Rossen’s The Hustler. The 134-minute film, which stars Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, and both Jake Lamotta and Vincent Gardenia as bartenders, will be screened on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actress Piper Laurie, who appears in the film as Sarah Packard, is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss her role and career.

From the press release:

The Hustler

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

The Hustler (1961)

55th Anniversary Screening

Wednesday, March 16, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

Three-Time Oscar Nominee Piper Laurie in person for Q&A after the screening

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler, one of the most incisive character dramas of the 1960s, earned nine Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars,...

We here at Collider are happy to debut the first trailer and poster for director Charles Matthau’s (The Grass Harp) adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel Freaky Deaky. The story centers on a former bomb squad officer (Billy Burke) who is transferred to the sex crimes unit where he gets suspended for investigating the rich, powerful and drunk Woody Ricks (Crispin Glover) after falling for a young woman (Sabina Gadecki). He decides to enact revenge, but along the way stumbles upon an odd group of characters including a Black Panther (Michael Jai White) and an ex-fugitive (Breanne Racano) and her bombing partner (Christian Slater). Hit the jump to watch the trailer and to check out the poster. Freaky Deaky also stars Roger Bart and will be released on DVD on February 26th. Here’s the synopsis for Freaky Deaky: Chris Mankowski (Billy Burke) used to be on the Detroit Police bomb squad,...

Entertainment One has announced the DVD release of Freaky Deaky on February 26. This adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel will be priced at $19.98 Srp. Take a look at the cover art and special features below.

Chris Mankowski (Billy Burke) used to be on the Detroit Police bomb squad, but it's not until he's transferred to sex crimes that he gets a real taste of juggling dynamite. After falling for the lovely Greta Wyatt (Sabina Gadecki), he gets suspended for investigating the rich, powerful and drunk Woody Ricks (Crispin Glover). Taking matters into his own hands, Mankowski quickly realizes it won't be easy to get justice for Greta. From former Black Panther Donnell Lewis (Michael Jai White) to sexy ex-fugitive Robin Abbott (Breanne Racano) and her erstwhile bombing partner Skip Gibbs (Christian Slater), everyone wants something from Ricks. With all these unscrupulous deviants in the mix, one thing's for certain... it's gonna get freaky!

DVD Release Date: Feb. 26, 2013

Price: DVD $19.98

Studio: Entertainment One

Christian Slater and Breanne Racano get Freaky Deaky.

The 2012 crime caper comedy film Freaky Deaky is based on the Elmore Leonard’s best-selling 1988 novel of the same name.

Set in 1974, Freaky Deaky zeroes in on Chris Mankowski (Billy Burke, Red Riding Hood), a former member of the Detroit Police bomb squad who begins to get a real taste for juggling dynamite when he’s transferred to the sex crimes unit. After falling for the lovely Greta Wyatt (Sabina Gadecki), he gets suspended for investigating the rich, powerful and drunk Woody Ricks (Crispin Glover, Hot Tub Time Machine). Taking matters into his own hands, Mankowski quickly realizes it won’t be easy to get justice for Greta, but maybe it can happen with some unintentional assistance from former Black Panther Donnell Lewis (Michael Jai White, TV’s For Better or Worse), sexy...

Cannes (May 23, 2012) – Entertainment One (“eOne”) announced today from the 2012 Cannes Film Festival that the company is acquiring all North American rights to director Charlie Matthau’s homage to 1970s filmmaking, Freaky Deaky. Matthau also penned the screenplay, which is based on Elmore Leonard’s 1988 novel of the same name. The film stars Crispin Glover, Billy Burke, Michael Jai White, Christian Slater, Andy Dick, Breanne Racano and Sabina Gadecki. Matthau andJudd Rubin produced the project, with George Eyde, Louis Eyde, Nathaniel Eyde, Robert Cantrell, Steven Berez, Donald Zuckerman, and Lee Greenberg executive producing. Freaky Deaky had its world premiere earlier this year at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. In Freaky Deaky, Chris Mankowski’s (Burke) first day on the sex crimes unit of the Detroit Police Department does not go well. Not only does he fall for the first person to report an assault to him, he’s suspended for investigating the rich,...

Tribeca: Tell us a little about Freaky Deaky. How do you describe the movie in your own words? Charles Matthau: A fun, sexy romp through Elmore Leonard's Detroit, circa 1974. Tribeca: It is widely reported that Freaky Deaky is one of Elmore Leonard's favorite novels that he has written. What were the challenges of adapting Freaky Deaky for the screen? Charles Matthau: The last time I adapted a noted writer's work to the screen was Truman Capote's The Grass Harp, which was set in 1930s Alabama and could not be more different in tone and pace than Freaky Deaky. With Freaky Deaky, I had the additional pressure of Elmore being very much alive and with us, and I was hopeful to not disappoint him. This particular story requires a heightened reality, yet shouldn't come off as too cartoonish. I also wanted the film to feel like...

HollywoodNews.com: Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel to be honored at the Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony.

The 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, are pleased to announce that the cast of DreamWorks Pictures and Participant Media’s “The Help” – Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel – will be recognized at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony with the “Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award.”

The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the 15th Annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place on the evening of Monday, October 24, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The Hollywood Film Awards Gala launches the awards season.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories for you this afternoon. First up, Ray Winstone has been cast as the seventh and final dwarf in Snow White and the Huntsman. Heat Vision reports that Winstone joins previously announces dwarfs Ian McShane, Eddie Izzard, Bob Hoskins, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan and Steven Graham. Winstone will play Trajan. Directed by Rupert Sanders, the film centers on princess Snow White (Kristen Stewart) attempting to escape the grasp of her evil stepmother (Charlize Theron) with the help of a huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) who trains her to survive. Snow White and the Huntsman hits theaters June 1st, 2012. Additionally, Joel David Moore has joined the burgeoning cast of Oliver Stone’s Savages. Based on the book by Don Winslow, the film stars Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Emile Hirsch, John Travolta and Uma Thurman. The story centers on two...

A trio of actors have signed on for Charles Matthau’s (The Grass Harp) adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel Freaky Deaky. Variety reports that Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser and Craig Robinson will star in the Hollywood-centered crime flick. Dillon will star as an Lapd bomb squad officer who happens upon a plot hatched by two hippies who plan to scam a movie mogul using their bomb-making skills. Fraser plays a former activist who now puts his bomb-knowledge to work as a Hollywood pyrotechnics and demolition expert, and Robinson is poised to play a former Black Panther who now serves as the assistant to Fraser’s character. In pitch-perfect casting, William H. Macy is already set to star as the alcoholic Hollywood mogul that the two hippie characters attempt to scam. The other day we heard that Sienna Miller may be starring in the film, but she wasn't mentioned in Variety's report today.

The cast of Freaky Deaky continues to grow as Variety reports that Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser and Craig Robinson have all signed on for the Elmore Leonard adaptation. Written and to be directed by Charles Matthau ( The Grass Harp ), the story revolves around Chris Mankowski (Dillon), a Detroit police sergeant who moves from the bomb squad to sex crimes, coming up against a group of '60s radicals who now, in 1974, are part of an investigation involving the bombing of a limousine. Fraser is said to play Skip Gibbs, a former activist who now uses his knowledge of explosives to provide effects for Hollywood films. Robinson will play Donnell Lewis, a Black Panther in the 60's and, in '74, the assistant to Woody Ricks (the previously announced William H. Macy), a Hollywood power...

Toronto -- Myriad Pictures' Kirk D'Amico and One Way Out Media's Tom Ortenberg have boarded Charles Matthau's comedy-crime thriller "Freaky Deaky," an adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel, as executive producers.

Myriad and Matthau Media are producing the film, which Matthau is writing and directing. Matthau, whose previous credits include "The Grass Harp," is currently in post-production on the Vegas jazz musical "Baby O."

Myriad, which is offering the project to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival, holds all international rights as well as Canada, and One Way is repping domestic rights.

Leonard's novel follows two former lovers and radicals with a talent for bomb-making. After several years and prison terms apart, they reunite to steal millions from a now-wealthy accomplice they are convinced framed them.

Producing are Matthau, Michael Meltzer and Judd Rubin.

"It's very exciting to be making an Elmore Leonard film," D'Amico said.