Hugh Laurie Eats ORANGES

Is Hugh Laurie a big screen material? He played a supporting role in Street Kings starring Keanu Reeves a couple of years ago and he looked like Dr. House with a badge. His voice role in Monsters Vs. Aliens didn’t stand out but I blame the movie. Sense & Sensibility and Stuart Little were years ago but I don’t think we watched those movies because of Laurie now did we?! But the bigger question would probably be is Hugh Laurie a big screen lead actor material?…

LA Times Blog 24 reported that one of 2008′s Black List (industry’s most desired screenplays that didn’t get produced), ORANGES may be turned into a movie after all. It’s being produced by Anthony Bregman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

Written by Jay Reiss-Ian Helfer, the story is a “dark dramatic comedy about an older man who has an affair with the daughter of a family friend”
The blog said Laurie is in talks to play the creepy/sympathetic older man.
And to play the daughter of the family friend, it may be either Leighton Meester (TV’s Gossip Girl) or Mila Kunis (Max Payne, Book Of Eli) who’s been slowly but surely finding her way to the big screen from her That 70s Show series days.
No confirmation yet on which of the two hotties will get the role.

But with all these three individuals, it’s interesting to know that they are all TV actors trying something bigger, to be the next George Clooney or Helen Hunt or any other TV actor that has successfully proven to be more than just small screen worthy.. you can argue about Hunt now, but that girl did win an Oscar.

I think Laurie is brilliant actor but it’s gonna be tough to separate him from the character Dr. Gregory House. He’s going to have to completely drop the series and go through several indie or big budget projects, try a bunch of unique challenging roles from different genres, give himself and us the audience a time to eventually forget he was once Dr. House. Willis had to leave Moonlighting, Clooney had to leave E.R… But then again, Carell is still with The Office.
What do you think would help a TV actor in his transition to becoming a big screen actor?