Though Nicole Kidman is no longer on Broadway in The Blue Room, she won't be straying too far from the theatre with her next project. The actress is currently in talks to appear in a new film written and directed by Jez Butterworth, Variety reported. Butterworth is the author of the play, Mojo, which had a successful run at New York's Atlantic Theatre Company in 1997 and which Butterworth later made into a film.

Butterworth's latest movie project is called "Birthday Girl," about a Russian mail-order bride sent for by a meek, suburban London bank manager. Kidman would play the bride. Butterworth co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Tom. The film will shoot in Australia this summer.

Hollywood is currently holding its breath wondering how much of Kidman will be on view in "Eyes Wide Shut," the film Stanley Kubrick just completed before he died. Kidman and husband Tom Cruise reportedly appear in some rather graphic love scenes -- with pressure being exerted on the studios not to make changes to the director's final cut.

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The producers of The Blue Room had to cancel the smash Blue Room's final week of performances due to star Nicole Kidman's illness. Kidman was by a bronchial infection that inflamed her vocal cords. Doctors instructed the actress to rest her voice for three weeks. Blue Room, an adaptation by playwright David Hare of Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, was to have run through March 7. It began previews on Nov. 27, 1998 and opened Dec. 13.

"The Blue Room has brought such joy to me the last six months," Kidman said in a statement. "I am truly devastated not to complete the last week of the run and deeply apologize to the people who have planned to attend those performances."

--By Robert Simonson