HOLLYWOOD -- Tom Cruise is out. Nicole Kidman is in.
Anthony Minghella is hoping to begin shooting the American Civil War drama Cold Mountain in July.
It's the story of Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier trying to go home after the war has ended.
Minghella had struck a tentative deal with Cruise to play Inman, but Cruise opted instead to work with Ed Zwick on The Last Samurai and to begin developing Mission Impossible 3 with David Fincher.
Shortly after Cruise's departure, Minghella signed Kidman to star as Ada, the minister's daughter Inman left behind.
Renee Zellweger is scheduled to play Ruby, the drifter who befriends Ada while Jude Law is likely to step into the role of Inman.
Minghella's films include The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
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DIARY OF A YOUNG STAR
Before he can start working on Cold Mountain, Law has to finish The Diary of a Young Physician, David Mamet's new take on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story.
Law's co-star is Penelope Cruz, who has just signed for a July start date on Masked and Anonymous opposite Bob Dylan.
Dylan plays a singer serving a jail term. His former manager gets him released to participate in a charity concert.
Cruz will play the girlfriend of the journalist assigned to cover the concert.
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TRUTH ABOUT MARK
Mark Wahlberg is turning into the remake kid.
First, he stepped into Charlton Heston's loincloth for Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes.
Recently, he has been working on The Truth About Charlie, an updated version of the 1963 romantic thriller Charade, which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
In this version, written and directed by Jonathan Demme, Wahlberg plays a mysterious stranger who approaches a widow (Thandie Newton), claiming her husband's missing fortune belongs to him.
Wahlberg's character suspects she is hiding the money and demands it. Suddenly, they are on the run together because someone is trying to kill one or both of them.
Wahlberg is also in negotiations to remake the 1969 heist film The Italian Job with director F. Gary Gray, which originally starred Michael Caine.
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TWICE IS NICE
Canadian actor Barry Pepper is trying to juggle two films at once.
The first is Disney's The Snow Walker, based on a Farley Mowat story about a 1950s arctic pilot whose plane crashed.
He is rescued by an Inuit girl who helps him find his way back to civilization.
Charles Martin Smith wrote the adaptation and is directing with Pepper producing.
Pepper, who most recently starred opposite Mel Gibson in We Were Soldiers, will also join Edward Norton on the Spike Lee-directed movie The 25th.
Norton plays a man sentenced to jail who spends his last free day prowling old haunts with his best friends, trying to figure out where his life went so wrong.
Spider-Man's Tobey Maguire is producing the film and Philip Seymour Hoffman plays one of the friends.
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