'Rouge' gets Leguizamo

Thesp joining McGregor, Kidman in Luhrmann pic

By MICHAEL FLEMING

NEW YORK -- John Leguizamo has signed to re-team with director Baz Luhrmann on Fox's "Moulin Rouge." The two previously worked together in "Romeo + Juliet."

Scripted by Luhrmann, the film is set in 1899 Paris and follows a poet who has an affair with a nightclub star as he becomes involved with the local bohemian underground. Leguizamo will play the diminutive artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Leguizamo joins Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman in the pic, with filming to begin on location in Australia in October. Martin Brown will produce.

Next up for Leguizamo is Spike's Lee's "Summer of Sam," and he will soon be seen alongside Val Kilmer and Ethan Hawke in "Joe the King," directed by Frank Whaley.

Leguizamo is repped by William Morris, managed by 3 Arts, and attorney Jason Sloane.