It took almost a decade for Philip Kaufman to bring the story of Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn to the screen. It took just two days for Nicole Kidman to decide she wanted the role of Hemingway's third wife and fellow war correspondent - and she hadn't even been asked.
The actress had met the director of writer-oriented movies such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Right Stuff, Quills and Henry and June at a function in his hometown of San Francisco. He mentioned he was working on Hemingway and Gellhorn, a project which had bounced from being a feature to a telefeature for HBO.
Two days later Kidman called to say she had read the script and was keen. "Nobody was supposed to have the script - I guess she had her ways," laughs Kaufman. It helped that Kidman was a big fan of Kaufman, who, now 75, has been out of the director's chair for many years acting as caregiver for his late wife.
"I love that he loves women, and he really loves women," says Kidman. "He was the one that brought the sexuality to the piece. He's made great movies, and for him to want to tell this love story, that's his forte."
Kaufman had struggled to get the project greenlit as a movie, with the finance for the sort of adult dramas he makes increasingly hard to secure out of Hollywood.
