Citation:
Metallica’s Lars Ulrich To Star in Movie With Nicole Kidman
While heavy metal music might be renowned for its air of theatricality, Lars Ulrich has taken that quality a step further, signing up for an acting role in a new Nicole Kidman pic.
NYMag.com is reporting that the Metallica drummer has been cast in HBO’s upcoming feature Hemingway and Gellhorn, which alongside Ulrich and Kidman, will also star Clive Owen. The TV movie chronicles the marriage between Ernest Hemmingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Ulrich will play the role of Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens.
The feature will not be the first time that Lars has appeared on the big or small screen. The drummer made a cameo appearance in the 2009 comedy Get Him To The Greek, starring Russell Brand. He also appeared in the 2005 Metallica documentary Some Kinda Monster. Hemmingway and Gellhorn, however, will mark the first time that Ulrich has portrayed a fictional character and the first time that the musician-turned-actor has performed in any capacity other than a bit part.
It remains to be seen how Ulrich’s acting commitments will affect Metallica’s recently announced ten-day recording project. The sessions, which are proposed to start in May, have been described by guitarist Kirk Hammett as "not really 100 percent a Metallica record...without getting too deep into it, it’s more a recording project than a bona fide Metallica album." The short schedule attached to the project, along with the re-release of the band’s Garage, Inc. album on vinyl have led some fans to speculate that it might result in another covers record.
While Ulrich’s attachment to an Ernest Hemmingway project might surprise some metal fans, the drummer’s band has engaged with the works of the author before. Metallica’s 1984 track For Whom The Bell Tolls is named after Hemmingway’s 1940 novel set during the Spanish civil war.