Nicole Kidman and Ralph Fiennes are in talks to star in a film about Anglo-Saxon treasure.
The 51-year-old actress has read a "delicate" script by Moira Buffini adapted from John Preston’s novel ‘The Dig’, which is a fictional take on the 1939 discovery of a royal burial chamber at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, south east England, the site of sixth and early seventh-century cemeteries.
Kidman told the Daily Mail newspaper the script is "very much about the relationship between Edith Pretty, who owned the land at Sutton Hoo, and Basil Brown, the archaeologist who found what was discovered there."
In the novel, which is set shortly before the star of World War II, widowed farmer Edith was proved correct that the moulds on her land contained buried treasure, but there are plenty of jealousies and tensions involving locals following the discovery.
Should the pair sign up for ‘The Dig’, the ‘Moulin Rouge’ actress will achieve a life-long dream by starring opposite Fiennes, and she is hoping to start shooting next summer.
She added: "I’ve wanted to work with him my whole life.
"The British film industry gave me my great roles, so I’m raring to go."
Simon Stone is set to direct ‘The Dig’, and Gabrielle Tana – who has worked with Fiennes on numerous projects – is to produce the motion picture.
The Sutton Hoo find is said to be the greatest Anglo-Saxon discovery ever made in Britain, with one cemetery featuring an undisturbed ship-burial, which dates back to the early seventh century and is still regarded as one of the most incredible individual finds in England because of its size and completeness.
Nicole Kidman and Ralph Fiennes set for The Dig
