Paramount Pictures and Cruise-Wagner Prods. partners Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner have made a preemptive purchase of the Celia Brayfield novel "Heartswap" for a movie to star Cruise's wife and "Eyes Wide Shut" co-star Nicole Kidman.
The studio and producers will hire a writer to fashion a film with Kidman playing one of the two central female roles. The novel's about two beautiful best friends in their late 20s who are thrilled to find they've gotten engaged at the same time. During a drunken celebration, the pair agrees to attempt a seduction of the other's marriage partner. The boys fail the fidelity test miserably, and complications ensue.
C-W's next outing as producer is Paramount's big summer hit hopeful "Mission Impossible 2," starring Cruise and directed by John Woo.
"Heartswap" will be published in the U.K. by Little, Brown. CAA's Robert Bookman brokered the deal with lit agent Nick Marston of U.K.-based Curtis, Brown. Kidman, currently starring for Baz Luhrmann in Fox's "Moulin Rouge," is repped by CAA and managed by Marc Epstein.
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