Kidman pulls out of film

9 January 2007

Berlin (dpa) – Producers are seeking a replacement for Nicole Kidman, who pulled out of her upcoming film, "The Reader," this week after her pregnancy was revealed.
"A replacement is being sought," said a spokeswoman for the Babelsberg studios near Berlin where the Oscar-winning actress had been due to appear before the cameras this month.

The 40-year-old Australian was set to play the female lead in the Stephen Daldry-directed movie about a woman who has an affair with a teenager then suddenly vanishes.

Kidman is expecting a child with country-singer husband and fellow Australian Keith Urban. The pregnancy was disclosed on Tuesday after weeks of tabloid speculation.

The Babelsburg spokeswoman said negotiations were under way for a replacement but declined to mention any names.

Scenes for the film have already been shot in Berlin and the eastern Germany city of Goerlitz, close to the border with Poland.

"English Patient" star Ralph Fiennes is also starring in the movie, based on the 1995 book of the same name by German author Berhard Schlink.

German actor David Kross plays 15-year-old schoolboy Michael Berg, who has the affair with the woman supposed to have been played by Kidman.

They meet again years later when he is a law student visiting a trial about war crimes in which the woman is one of the accused. Berg is the only one who knows the reasons behind her admission of guilt.