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Posted: Fri., Jul. 10, 2009, 12:00am PT

BBC, Kidman buzz around 'Bee' book

Actress to star, produce pic based on Cleave novel

Nicole Kidman

Kidman

BBC Films has acquired the bestselling Chris Cleave novel "Little Bee," and Nicole Kidman has attached herself as star and producer.

Gail Mutrux will produce through her Pretty Pictures banner with Kidman and her Blossom Films partner Per Saari.

Shawn Slovo is writing the script. BBC Films creative director Christine Langan will be exec producer.

Story follows a fateful encounter on an African beach in which a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan named Little Bee meets a vacationing upper-middle-class British couple who've wandered into an area outside the safety of their resort.

Slovo, who was born and raised in South Africa and relocated with her family as a teen to the U.K. as political refugees, previously wrote "Catch a Fire" and the autobiographical "A World Apart."

Kidman's Blossom Films shingle is just wrapping its first production, "Rabbit Hole," David Lindsay-Abaire's adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, in which Kidman stars with Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest. John Cameron Mitchell directs.

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