Hugh Laurie ("House M.D.") is in talks to play the villain in director Brad Bird and co-writer Damon Lindelof's Tomorrowland (previously 1952), says The Hollywood Reporter.

He would be joining George Clooney in the secretive project at Disney. The plot of the movie has been kept under wraps but is described "as being in the vein of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg’s 1978 movie about a man searching for extra-terrestrials on Earth."

Tomorrowland is scheduled for a December 19, 2014 release. Lindelof (Prometheus, "LOST") wrote the script with Jeff Jensen.

Bird's directing credits include Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Ratatouille, The Incredibles and The Iron Giant.

(Photo Credit: C.Smith/WENN.com)