Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has been cast as Plutarch Heavensbee in the Catching Fire movie adaptation.

In The Hunger Games film sequel, Hoffman’s character serves as Head Gamemaker; the leader who oversees the design and management of Panem’s yearly battle to the death.

Here’s more from the release: “The actor and filmmaker just wrapped a Broadway run as Willy Loman in the revival of Death of a Salesman for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. He will next be seen in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and the indie film A Late Quartet alongside Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken.”

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For your mid-July publishing news pleasure, we bring you a video (embedded above) of the brooding actor Christopher Walken retelling the classic children’s story, ‘Three Little Pigs.’

Thanks to Roger Ebert for pointing us to the link from a 1993 episode of the British television series, Saturday Zoo. If you enjoyed his performance, you might want to check out Samuel L. Jackson‘s profane audiobook version of Go the F*** To Sleep.

If you really want to go down a YouTube rabbit hole, check out all the satirical posts entitled “Werner Herzog Reads….” For years, fans have made fake videos of the iconic film director reading children’s books. (Via Reddit)

Happy National Poetry Month!

Can a headless horseman read poetry? Actor Christopher Walken once played Ichabod Crane‘s nemesis in Tim Burton‘s adaptation of Sleepy Hollow. The video embedded above features Walken reading Edgar Allan Poe‘s The Raven.

Poe fans will see the poet on the big screen in January 2012. The Raven, starring John Cusack, just finished shooting and is currently in post-production.