And here are yet another round of small casting bites, courtesy of Variety:

• You might not be familiar with the name Frederic von Anhalt, but you're certainly familiar with his famous wife -- the one and only Zsa Zsa Gabor. While he only has a few acting gigs to his name, the man has scored a part as "a corrupt Las Vegas casino owner" in Charlie Matthau's upcoming flick Baby-O, which has begun filming in Las Vegas and LA -- the same locales used in Matthau's 2007 production, Mikey & Dolores. As for von Anhalt, this seems to be a side gig to his many adult adoptions. According to IMDb, Frederic and Zsa Zsa have adopted a handful of grown men lately.
• Chris Hemsworth, meanwhile, looks to be your regular sort of actor. Aside from his high-profile gig playing Captain Kirk's father in Star Trek, he is also looking for A Perfect Getaway. This is that Hawaiian thriller with Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, and Kiele Sanchez, which you can find out more about here. Hemsworth gets to play some dude named Kale.
• Kale is not one of the stalkees in his gig, but I don't know if the same can be said for Arlen Escarpeta, who you might remember from We Are Marshall, or from The Ten, where he got Oliver Platt's Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation as a father figure. Arlen has picked up "a lead role" in the remake of Friday the 13th, which is shooting now down in Austin. Will he survive, or will he be a victim?
  
• Finally, there's Alexis Dziena, who has nabbed a gig as a sister to Kristen Bell in When in Rome. Dziena will player Bell's younger sister "who's getting married on a whim." This is just one of many roles the actress has nabbed lately. She was in Fool's Gold, and just wrapped a part in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

Indie niblets for you:

• It's been a few months since director Adrienne Shelly died at the hands of a short-tempered construction worker. Now, while her final film gears up for a pie-licious May release, a number of awards and initiatives have been announced to continue women's filmmaking in her memory. The American Film Institute is launching a production grant what will underwrite a Master Class in Directing under her name, Columbia University is starting an annual Adrienne Shelly Award for best female directors, New York Women in Film & Television is launching an ASF Finishing Funds Grant and an annual ASF scholarship with be awarded annually at the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television (part of NYU). It's great news for future female filmmakers, but it's a shame that it couldn't come years later, after Shelly enjoyed an extremely long and successful life.
• As part of a Q&A with TOMB, Mira Nair, the Indian director responsible for works like Vanity Fair and The Namesake chatted briefly about another feature in the works -- this time, a documentary on The Beatles. Nair has an interesting spin on the epic band. It will delve into inspiration and how it strikes. In the late 60's, the group went to India, where it is said they created most of their White Album and part of Abbey Road. As Nair describes: "This moment of amazing inspiration that the Beatles had in this remote place on the banks of the Ganges -- how does it happen?" It could be a great view into the band, and at the very least, have some great tunes to accompany it.
  
• Walter's son, Charlie Matthau, is getting busier and gearing up for another film to add to Freaky Deaky, which I posted about in January. He will direct Mikey & Dolores, a jazz-infused love story about an unlucky talent manager who falls for a jazz singer who is a client of his. The lead is being played by David Proval, who also penned the script with wife Cheryl Meccariello, and there is no word yet on his love interest. However, according to Matthau, he's looking at a tasty little cast to round things off. He says that he is in talks with Eric Roberts, Steven Bauer, Vincent Pastore and Tanna Frederick, with two already signed on -- Don Rickles as a standup comic and Pete Rose as a Vegas celebrity. It will shoot this May in Vegas and L.A.
  

When the name Matthau enters the ear, you can't help but think of both the older and more recent classics of Walter Matthau. He created the world around the dirty Oscar Madison in the Odd Couple, sauced his way into the Candide-infused satire Candy and then rejoined Jack Lemmon for some Grumpy Old Men before his death in 2000. However, there's another Matthau to keep an eye on, his son, Charlie -- he's been an actor, mainly in his father's films, and has directed a few under-the-radar features.

Now the spotlight seems to be turning to the younger Matthau. According to Variety, he is going to direct his own adaptation of Freaky Deaky, an Elmore Leonard novel from the 80's. It was originally optioned by Quentin Tarantino, but it's no surprise that it didn't go anywhere after the flop that was Jackie Brown. After Tarantino, John Malcovich let it gather dust until it once again became Leonard's property. Matthau anxiously and relentlessly hounded the novelist for the rights, and subsequently bought them with his own money.

The novel, in a nut shell, covers two ex-revolutionaries who are fresh out of prison and want to make a profit on their explosive talents while also taking revenge on the man they believe is responsible for their prison sentence. The man in question is also the focus of a Motown cop. Obviously, this leads to explosive action and tricky confrontation. The film, however, will be updated. Matthau has moved the action from Detroit to LA, and moved the timeline from the 80s to the 70s. This doesn't seem to be something Leonard fans should worry about, however, since Leonard is incredibly positive about the changes: "I see this as a chance for my favorite book to become my favorite screenplay adaptation." How's that for optimism?