If there’s one thing a brand new year can’t ever guarantee to sweep under the carpet of the old, it’s the traditional swings and roundabouts that occasionally afflict film casting.
The latest example has just happened on The Reader, which Stephen Daldry has already been shooting since the end of last year in Berlin. He was all set to use his old mucker Nicole Kidman (who likes working with him since he helped her to an Oscar win with fake nose action in The Hours). But Nicole has just announced that she’s expecting a sprog with music hubby Keith Urban, which means she’s dropping the movie for the demands of motherhood. And who’s replacing her? Kate Winslet.
But that’s merely the latest twist in the job-swapping madness. She was originally a replacement for, um… Kate Winslet, who was Daldry’s original top choice, but faltered thanks to a scheduling conflict with Revolutionary Road, which, since it was being directed by Mr Kate Winslet (or Sam Mendes, as he prefers to be known). The filmmakers even shoved in a hiatus to accommodate eager replacement Kidman’s time-intensive duties on Baz Luhrmann’s Australia. Now Winslet can return the favour and Daldry can get back to work on the film, which finds a teen who falls for an enigmatic older woman in post-war Germany. Ralph Fiennes and German thesp David Kross are aboard and have already been busy working.
