When is the news of an actor you really like joining the cast of a high-profile new movie bad news? When you wish that actor were doing other things with his time, that's when. In the case of Thomas McCarthy -- whom you may remember from his masterfully detestable performance as weaselly reporter Scott Templeton in the final season of The Wire -- I wish he were writing and directing another film as brilliant and deeply moving as The Visitor, which at this halfway point is my favorite movie of 2008. I'd even settle for something with the wry, quiet charm of his lovely 2003 debut The Station Agent.

Instead -- ::sigh:: -- he's gone and taken a supporting role in Roland Emmerich's disaster flick 2012, playing Amanda Peet's boyfriend. C'mon, Tom: anyone can do that. Only a handful of people have your behind-the-camera chops. Quit messing around.

I'm being mean, and in this Hollywood Reporter piece McCarthy makes a valiant effort at defending the choice in terms of how working with directors who make different kinds of films helps him with his own work. (The article also mentions that McCarthy moonlights as an uncredited studio script doctor, which I didn't know, and which makes perfect sense given the natural, effortless flow of the films he's written.) Okay fine. But direct something else please.

Production/distribution company Overture made their first deal at Sundance this year by picking up the rights to Ferris Wheel, a drama produced by and starring Charlize Theron, as Erik Davis wrote. They were also involved in exciting news that came out around Cannes: the reuniting of Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro for Righteous Kill. Now Overture has made a splash at Toronto by securing Thomas McCarthy's immigration comedy/drama The Visitor very late Monday night, as reported by Variety's Dade Hays.

Thomas McCarthy is a veteran actor who has found steady work in both television and films. His directorial debut, The Station Agent, won accolades from many after it premiered at Sundance in 2003. Erik Davis was not a fan of the film, as he related when reporting that McCarthy had signed the deal to make The Visitor one year ago. (I haven't seen either film, so I am completely neutral.) Obviously, though, McCarthy has plenty of fans.

The film was touted as a prime acquisition target by columnist Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times before the festival; the bidding "kicked off not long" after The Visitor's gala public screening on Friday night, according to Variety. Blogging about the deal for Variety, Anne Thompson commented: "A lot of people wanted the picture but weren't willing to overpay for it. Overture stepped up for what will surely be a marketing challenge."

The great supporting actor Richard Jenkins stars in The Visitor as a lonely professor who visits his long-unused Manhattan apartment only to find an undocumented couple living there. John Anderson's Variety review says: "A film that is a combination immigrant/resurrection tale, Visitor tilts toward the soulful rather than the political and could be this year's humanistic indie hit."

If you ask me, the only good thing to come out of Thomas McCarthy's The Station Agent was Peter Dinklage's genuine (yet often boring) performance in the lead role. Other than that, well, I only watched the film once ... if you get my drift. However, a lot of people thoroughly enjoyed the flick and I figured it was only a matter of time before McCarthy, an actor-turned-writer/director, would shell another film.

Well folks, that day has finally come: Variety reports McCarthy has just signed a deal to write and direct The Visitor for Groundswell Prods. and Participant Prods., marking his (highly anticipated?) sophomore effort. The dramedy is said to revolve around a widower/economics professor whose "world is turned upside down when he meets two illegal immigrants, one of whom he befriends and tries to help when discovered by U.S. immigration authorities." While McCarthy has consistently found work as an actor before and after The Station Agent, he's been itching to jump back behind the scenes for awhile now. Here's hoping McCarthy's latest tale of unusual friendships (which starts shooting next month in Gotham) manages to keep me from catching up on some much-needed sleep.

With the release of Little Man, I was shocked to find no protests from little people. Is this movie not the worst representation of dwarfs in decades? Though I'm not sure if the actors playing Marlon Wayans' body are actual little people, it must be insulting that a real little person isn't playing the "vertically-challenged" character. Wasn't it bad enough that The Lord of the Rings trilogy didn't use dwarfs as hobbits? Basically Little Man backtracks the portrayal of little people and makes them out to be freaks once again.

So, I'd like to take this opportunity to salute the little people in movies. They are in fact all over the big screen, mostly as stand-ins and stunt-doubles for children, but once in awhile they are really celebrated with prominent roles. These roles have decreased, though, since CGI replaced many creature characters so we have fewer little people dressed as Ewoks, robots and other sci-fi/fantasy inventions. I chose seven films I think are quite significant in the showcasing of individual little people. I've deliberately left out Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on account it obviously doesn't use actual little people, and I've also omitted The Wizard of Oz since there are no real standouts, only a lot of dressed-up extras.