Henry Winkler Joins Wes Anderson’s ‘The French Dispatch’

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Henry Winkler has become the latest actor to join the star-studded cast of Wes Anderson’s period project “The French Dispatch.”

The ensemble includes Frances McDormand, Benicio del Toro, Jeffrey Wright, Timothee Chalamet and Lois Smith along with Anderson regulars Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and Bob Balaban. Plot details are under wraps, but the story is set during the 1950s at the Paris bureau of an American newspaper.

Anderson is directing from his own script. The movie is his first live-action film since 2014’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” for which he received three Academy Award nominations for producing, directing and screenplay. He won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for directing “Isle of Dogs.”

Anderson is also producing “” with Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson and Steven Rales through Rales’ Indian Paintbrush company. No distribution deal has been announced yet. Fox Searchlight released “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Isle of Dogs.”

Winkler, who broke out as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in “Happy Days,” won his first Emmy in September for his supporting role as an acting coach in HBO’s “Barry” and received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations. Winkler is repped by Management 360. The news was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter.