If you were Dave Matthews, what would you say to a role in a Hollywood studio movie? According to the Hollywood Reporter, the actor said yes to costarring in ''Because of Winn-Dixie,'' a family drama from Twentieth Century Fox that Wayne Wang (''Maid in Manhattan'') will direct in late September. Based on Kate Dicamillo's novel, it's about a girl who moves with her preacher father (Jeff Daniels) to a small Florida town where she knows no one, but a big dog, Winn-Dixie (she names him after the supermarket where she finds him) helps her befriend a colorful group of locals, including a drifter (Matthews) and a librarian (Oscar winner Eva Marie Saint).
Matthews, whose solo debut, ''Some Devil,'' comes out Sept. 23, has acted before, in another coming-of-age film about a small-town kid who loves dogs. He plays the main character's dad in the independently-made remake of ''Where the Red Fern Grows,'' which was shot in 1999, but which has so far been screened only at this year's Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
