Dench and Kidman to join Bardem and Cruz on Broadway?

Judi Dench and Nicole Kidman are said to be in talks to join Javier Bardem and his girlfriend Penelope Cruz (pictured together with Salma Hayek, right) in the film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Nine. The show, first staged in 1982, was an adaptation of Fellini's 8 1/2 and is about a film director (Bardem) juggling the demands of the many women in his life.

Kidman, who is due to have a baby before filming starts in September, sang and danced in Moulin Rouge. Dench, best known to international film-goers for her portrayal of M in recent Bond movies, has plenty of musical experience. She played Sally Bowles in the original London production of Cabaret in 1968, and won the 1995 Olivier Award for the revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music.

Bardem, meanwhile, finds himself in the bizarre position of having been replaced on a film by a woman. Francis Ford Coppola has cast the Spanish actress Carmen Maura to take over the role Bardem was due to play opposite Vincent Gallo in the Godfather director's new film Tetro.

Coppola said: "As I read and reread (the script), I felt that the interaction between the two characters would be far more intriguing if they were of the opposite sex."