March 1, 1999

An indie film production called More Dogs Than Bones is getting under way with a cast that teams three Oscar-winning actresses -- Mercedes Ruehl, Louise Fletcher and Whoopi Goldberg -- with Joe Mantegna, Peter Coyote, D.B. Woodside, Debi Mazar and Paul Hipp.

Michael Browning has written and will direct the Dream Entertainment black comedy. Browning is best known for scripting the Harrison Ford-Anne Heche action comedy Six Days Seven Nights.

The production, shooting in New York and Los Angeles, is a crime caper in which a group of hapless young people from a rundown part of downtown L.A. are unwittingly caught up with a gang of professional mobsters. The film will be produced by Dream Entertainment co-founders Ehud Bleiberg and Yitzhak Ginsberg along with Brittany Taylor and Miriam Leffert.

Dream, which holds worldwide rights, has already lined up theatrical distributors in Germany, Italy, Turkey, Taiwan and Iceland. The cast also boasts Independent Spirit Award nominee Ajay Naidu, Chain Jeraffi and Glenn Shadix.

Mantegna was most recently seen in HBO's The Rat Pack and Woody Allen's Celebrity. His career has ranged from Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon to the recent hit comedy Patch Adams.

Ruehl won her Oscar for The Fisher King. Fletcher, featured in the upcoming Cruel Intentions, won her best actress Oscar in Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Goldberg -- whose role is a small one -- earned a statuette for Ghost .

Woodside, last seen in NBC miniseries The Temptations, was a series regular on Steven Bochco's Murder One. Mazar has appeared in many films including Batman Returns and She's So Lovely. Actor-singer-songwriter Hipp was featured in Another Day in Paradise and Face/Off.

Copyright March 1999 The Hollywood Reporter.

More information from Peter Coyote's official site. IMDB.