Clive Owen ("Sin City," "Closer," "King Arthur") will star in screenwriter-director Michael Davis' "Shoot 'Em Up" for New Line Cinema according to Freeze Dried Movies. The casting gives an automatic greenlight to the project.

The ultraviolent action project has already earned a reputation for being one of the most inventive action/gun fight movie scripts ever to be assembled with shootouts during both a sex scene and in the midst of a freefall.

The story begins with a woman having a baby during a shootout. The man who delivers the baby, called simply Mr. Smith, is entrusted with protecting it from an army of gunmen.

Davis, who broke onto the scene years ago with Warner Bros. "Eight Days a Week", has been hard at work on this massive project for months now. A January start date is being eyed with a release late 2006.

Thanks to 'Brad'