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Oscar-winner Sir Anthony Hopkins ("Hearts in Atlantis," "Hannibal," "Silence of the Lambs," "Amistad") and Nicole Kidman ("The Others," "Moulin Rouge") will star in Lakeshore Entertainment's upcoming drama "The Human Stain," it was announced today by Lakeshore's Chairman Tom Rosenberg.

Directed by multi Academy Award-winner Robert Benton ("Kramer vs. Kramer," "Nobody's Fool," "Places in the Heart"), the film is based upon Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Roth's award-winning novel "The Human Stain" (National Bestseller 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award). The script is adapted by Nicholas Meyer ("Sommersby," "Fatal Attraction").

Bringing to full circle Roth's trilogy about postwar America, "The Human Stain" is the story of Coleman Silk (Hopkins), a classics professor with a terrible secret that is about to shatter his life in a small New England town. When his affair with a young troubled janitor (Kidman) is uncovered, the secret Silk had harbored for over fifty years from his wife, his children and colleague, writer Nathan Zuckerman, fast explodes in a conflagration of devastating consequences. It is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled.

Produced by Rosenberg ("The Mothman Prophecies," "The Gift," "The Runaway Bride") and Gary Lucchesi ("The Mothman Prophecies," "Autumn in New York," "Primal Fear") with Scott Steindorff, the pic is slated to start production in March 2002.

Rosenberg said, " When I first read the book I knew the film would be an enormous challenge but one that I was determined to take on. Coleman Silk's driving characteristic is a will to define himself and his life without bending to societal constraints. We now have the perfect creative team to realize the story as Roth envisioned it."

Lakeshore Entertainment president Gary Lucchesi added "I first met Benton when I was a young executive working on "Places in the Heart." Nick Meyer was a former client of mine when I was an agent. I am so excited that my past creative experiences have come together in such an extraordinary project. And who could imagine better actors for these two great roles than Sir Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman!"

SOURCE: Lakeshore Entertainment