Hollywood actor Philip Seymour Hoffman says he was eager to work with iconic director Sidney Lumet on his new film "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."

Hoffman won an Oscar for his work in "Capote," while Lumet directed "12 Angry Men," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Serpico" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night."

"I was just excited," Hoffman told United Press International in New York recently. "I was excited to experience working on a film with him; he's made so many great movies and (directed) so many great performances in his movies. We all heard how he works and I was excited to see how that was and it was satisfying. It met my expectations in a lot of ways."

In the film, Hoffman plays an ambitious, domineering man who steers his less-successful brother towards committing the biggest mistake of his life.

Hoffman said he thinks people might be surprised to see him in the part, noting, "I haven't played as many kind of Alpha male roles."

"This is a guy who is a straight up-and-down Alpha male hetero … going to the top, will take you down, you know what I mean?" he said. "I don't think people have seen me in this role so much before." // Copyright 2007 by United Press International

One of Hoffman's earliest major roles in a 1990 episode of the television series Law & Order.

He made his film breakthrough in 1992 when he appeared in four feature films, with the most successful film being Scent of a Woman.

Hoffman has established a successful and respected film career playing diverse and idiosyncratic characters in supporting roles.

He appeared in Last Party 2000, a documentary about the 2000 elections. In 2003, he played the lead role in Owning Mahowny. He has continued to play juicy supporting parts in such films as Cold Mountain, Along Came Polly, and Mission Impossible III.

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