Winslet expected to replace Kidman in "The Reader"

Los Angeles, Jan 09: Actress Kate Winslet is near a deal to step into the film role just vacated by the newly pregnant Nicole Kidman as a woman who has an affair with a teenage boy in "The Reader," Winslet's publicist said on Tuesday.

Winslet, 32, a five-time Oscar nominee, was originally offered the part but had to turn it down at the time because of a scheduling conflict, her spokeswoman said.

The film is based on German author Bernhard Schlink's 1995 bestseller, which Oprah Winfrey also picked for her book club. The novel, set in post-war Germany, involves a woman who carries on a love affair with a 15-year-old boy. Years later he learns she is a defendant in a Holocaust war crimes trial.

The movie adaptation is to be directed by Stephen Daldry, who directed Kidman on her way to an Oscar-winning performance as author Virginia Woolf in "The Hours."

Kidman, 40, announced through her publicist on Monday that she is expecting a baby, her first child with country music star husband Keith Urban, and was dropping out of "The Reader" as a result of the pregnancy.

Winslet earned her latest Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 2006 drama "Little Children" as a woman caught in a loveless marriage.

News Source : Samachar