After House ended its series run earlier this year, Hugh Laurie was to make the jump to films starting off with a role as the villain in Jose Padilha’s Robocop. Now reports are coming in confirming that he won’t be in the film after all. Jeff Sneider of Variety reports that Laurie never had his deal finalized, even though he was in talks to star.

Sneider wrote: “HUGH LAURIE definitely out of ROBOCOP reboot, not that he was ever “˜in.'”

As to who his replacement could be, Deadline says that Clive Owen is in talks to play the rich CEO of OmniCorp, the organization that turns Detroit police officer Alex Murphy from a near-dead man into a half-human half-robot law enforcer. Of course this is done to make a profit and not protect the citizens of Detroit.

Endless rumors have surrounded the possibility of a Sin City 2, the follow-up to Robert Rodriquez‘s wondfully stylized 2005 adaptation of Frank Miller‘s graphic novel of the same name. So much so that fans had all but given up hope that the sequel would actually ever happen. Today, rumor becomes fact.

Original director Rodriguez, along with Miller and producer Alexander Rodnyansky, have announced that they are ready to begin production on the sequel, which will be titled Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, through Rodriquez’s Quick Draw Productions and Rodnyansky’s AR Films, with Dimension Films handling domestic distribution.

Casting will begin on the project next week, with shooting expected to happen sometime this summer.

When it comes to writers, no one makes a film more intriguing than one Paul Schrader.

Variety is reporting that the writer has found a lead for his next project, a film entitled Recall, as Clive Owen has become attached to the project. Currently being set up by Moonstone Entertainment, the film has already been sold to Latin America and South Korean territories.

Last week, we reported that Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich had been cast as Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens in the upcoming HBO film Hemingway and Gellhorn.

Now, Rolling Stone has posted a photo Ulrich as Ivens, along with his fellow castmates Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen on set of the film in San Francisco.

Check out the image here at top; Ulrich is on the far left, complete with beret and director’s camera.

I honestly don’t know how to take this news. But here it is… Lars Ulrich, co-founder and drummer of Metallica, the man that fans either love to hate or hate to love or some variation thereof, has been cast in a film. Yep, that’s right; Ulrich is stepping up into acting having been cast in the HBO movie, Hemingway and Gellhorn.

Hemingway and Gellhorn is a biopic being executive produced by James Gandolfini (Mr. Soprano himself!) and directed by Phil Kaufman. The HBO film will focus on the romance and marriage between Ernest Hemingway (portrayed by Clive Owen) and Martha Gellhorn (portrayed by Nicole Kidman). The plot will follow the two through the Spanish Civil War and afterwards.

Also included in the casting are Molly Parker, Parker Posey, and Peter Coyote.