Variety has confirmed that Kate Winslet will replace Nicole Kidman in the lead of The Weinstein Company’s Stephen Daldry film The Reader. Kidman dropped out Monday, citing her pregnancy as the reason.
Principal photography on the pic began late last year in Berlin and the Eastern city of Goerlitz and filming was set to continue this month with Kidman, who had yet to shoot any scenes of the film.
Ralph Fiennes and up-and-coming German actor David Kross (Tough Enough) co-star in the drama about a teen who falls for an enigmatic older woman in postwar Germany.
Winslet was actually the first choice but was unable to do the movie because of a scheduling conflict with Revolutionary Road, her re-team with Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, which was directed by her husband, Sam Mendes.
Kidman then took the role, and the filmmakers built in a hiatus to accommodate her when the production of the Baz Luhrmann-directed Australia went longer than expected.
By the time Kidman withdrew from the project because she and husband Keith Urban were expecting a baby, Winslet was available again and the film is able to remain on schedule.
