Clive Owen has been causing mixed reactions when appearing in public recently, notably on the Ellen DeGeneres show, due to a new facial feature: a thick bushy moustache.

However the facial hair is not due to an eccentric style consultant or a lost razor but to Owen's new role as writer Ernest Hemingway. The actor will be playing the character in Hemingway & Gellhorn, directed by Philip Kaufman opposite Nicole Kidman.

The film will be released in 2012, and is a drama centred on the romance between Ernest Hemingway and WWII correspondent Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway's inspiration for For Whom the Bell Tolls and the only woman who ever asked for a divorce from the writer.

It will give a boost to interest in Hemingway and his memorabilia - not that the writer's collectibles are in great need of a boost, as Hemingway is still making his mark on the auction block.

Ernest Hemingway's Three Stories and Ten Poems

In June last year for example, a rare example of Hemingway's first-ever book, the rather literally named Three Stories and Ten Poems beat its $12,000-18,000 estimate to achieve $21,600. We expect this to prove an exceptional investment.

But it is dwarfed by a recent result for an extraordinary piece of Hemingway memorabilia which sold last week at James D Julia's Important Firearms Auction.

The Immortal Ernest Hemingway's Westley Richards

A Westley Richards Best quality rifle with drop lock is always going to attract attention in its own right at auction, but the one which sold was owned and used by the Nobel Prize winning, innovative author, war correspondent, uncompromising outdoorsman and hunter.

It topped its already substantial $150,000-200,000 estimate to sell for $339,250.