The Old Ball And Chain

Fixed smile, vacant stare and a scrubbing brush in hand as she gaily cleans up after her husband and master: not exactly how you'd conjure the scene when asked to picture Nicole Kidman. Nevertheless, the firey red-head who twirled men around her fingers in Moulin Rouge and put fear of God into them in The Others is casting off free-will for an apron and ironing board in Frank Oz's re-make of The Stepford Wives. Heading up the satirical tale about a woman's role in married life, Kidman will play a happily married woman who moves to an idyllic suburban neighbourhood in good old USA. Somewhat flummoxed to find that the neighbourhood women take pains to wait on their men hand and foot, she soon discovers that the wives have been replaced by subservient cyborgs and, worse still, that her husband knows a good thing when he sees one. Apart from replacing station wagons with funky SUVs, the updated Stepford Wives is apparently going to veer more towards black comedy than the straight thrills of its progenitor and will boast the obligatory smattering of cutting-edge CGI as the robot wives transform to their true selves. The script is being penned by Addams Family Values scribe, Paul Rudnick.