Nicole Kidman, Monica Bellucci and Viggo Mortensen are among the stars headlining the first edition of the Rome Film Festival.

The festival, which will run Oct. 13-21, opens with the world premiere of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diana Arus, starring Kidman. The movie is being shown out of competition.

“This film is a paradigm. It has everything you can think of for an opening film,” said Piera Detassis, a member of the festival’s board of directors.

Bellucci stars in N (Io e Napoleone) or N (Napoleon and I) and Le Concile de pierre or The Stone Council, both being shown out of competition. Mortensen appears in Alatriste, a movie about a soldier living in 17th-century Spain.

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Jackman has now begun preparing for Baz Luhrmann’s untitled Australian epic, which goes into production in February.

Jackman and his fellow castmates, including Nicole Kidman, will take part in a production workshop in Sydney in December.

“I have just been in doing fittings for hats and boots, so we are definitely on the go,” said Jackman.

He said he’d taken some horse riding tips from fellow actor Tom Burlinson, who starred in 1982′s The Man From Snowy River.

“I am starting my horse riding stuff,” said Jackman, who first learnt to ride a horse for Kate And Leopold, with Meg Ryan.

“I am going in for the long haul, mate. I don’t want any (stunt) doubles. I am fairly confident on a horse but this is droving, it’s another level.”

Nicole Kidman will have trouble dispelling rumours that she is pregnant after her tummy gave a starring display outside a cinema in Los Angeles.

A suspicious-looking bump protruded from underneath her jumper as the 39-year-old actress left the building accompanied by her mother-in-law.

When she spotted photographers, she quickly glanced at her belly and rearranged her top to cover it, before giving a wry smile.

With behaviour like this, the Kidman baby debate shows no signs of relenting. One thing’s for sure, she has certainly been keeping herself busy recently.

She is currently filming The Golden Compass, the adaptation of the first of author Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy at Shepperton studios.

She has been staying in the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair with husband Keith Urban.

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Filming for the movie version of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights has started in Oxford.

Newsround can exclusively reveal that scenes have been shot over the last few days at different university locations.

Northern Lights is the story of Lyra, who lives in a version of Oxford in a different universe. She travels to the north of the world to save her friend.

The University’s Exeter College has been standing in for Lyra’s home, Jordan College.

Filming at other locations around the city is thought to have involved 12-year-old Dakota Blue Richards, who plays Lyra, and James Bond star Daniel Craig, who plays her guardian Lord Asriel.

Dakota was chosen for the role from more than 10,000 girls who turned up to open auditions around England. This is her first film role.

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Classic Italian style was the order of the day when Nicole Kidman stepped out in Rome this week. The Oscar-winning actress caused quite a stir in the working class neighbourhood of Testaccio when she arrived to film a new advertisement.

In the clip she plays a normal Italian woman who dreams of a better life. The recently married star is seen chatting with neighbours and doing her shopping in the tiny streets that surround her tenement home.

But although her character obviously enjoys a friendly relationship with the local residents, the district’s real-life inhabitants weren’t quite so impressed when a film crew turned up on their doorstep. Production was delayed by six hours after members of the community, who woke the find their narrow streets obstructed by TV vans and equipment, decided to block access to the location.

The people of Testaccio, who also felt rather put out when producers told them to stay indoors for the duration of the shoot, eventually accepted an offer of £17,000 in compensation from Sky Italia. “We had nothing against Nicole,” said a representative for the residents. “She was fantastic and smiled and waved to us and even said ‘ciao’ in Italian which was very nice of her.”

In a scene of Felliniesque surrealism, the actress Nicole Kidman was barred from filming inside an historic Roman apartment building at the weekend by angry residents who wanted a higher fee for their cooperation.

The 280 families living in 41 via Vespucci in the Testaccio area claimed they had not been forewarned that the actress would be filming an advertisement in their architecturally admired palazzo or condominium.

When word got out about Kidman’s starring role, and it was revealed that the administrator of the building had agreed a fee of only €6,000 (£4,000), the tenants rebelled.

Preparations for the film were halted as residents streamed out of their apartments, descending from the building’s eight staircases, to gather in the central courtyard and to argue with the startled film crew, led by an American director.

Blocking access to technicians setting up cameras, lights and miles of cable and threatening to halt production, tempers flared as one tenant described the fee as a “plate of lentils” – a term used to describe a paltry sum of money.

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Hollywood star Nicole Kidman was held to ‘ransom’ by angry residents who demanded compensation after an Italian advert she was filming clogged up surrounding streets with camera vans.

Locals said Nicole’s arrival brought chaos to the neighbourhood of tiny streets. Producers told residents of one apartment block used as a location they were unable to leave or enter during filming.

It all proved too much for the residents of the famous Testaccio district of central Rome who refused to allow Nicole into the 1930′s tenement block.

The Oscar-winner was forced to wait in her sweltering trailer after they demanded compensation for the chaos from the producers of the Sky Italia advert.

After a series of tense meetings Sky chiefs who feared losing Nicole, 39, as she was only available for 12 hours handed over £17,000 to delighted residents in compensation.

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SHE was considered a safe bet for her third Oscar nomination, but Nicole Kidman’s 2007 hopes took a tumble last week with the first public showing of her controversial new film Fur, based on the life of the late American photographer Diane Arbus.

Having won the 2002 best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours, Kidman appeared to have landed another dream role when she signed up to play Arbus, a tormented genius who became famous for photographing human freaks and who committed suicide in 1971.

Yet Fur’s early promise, which was further enhanced by a row between rival European film festivals over where it would receive its premiere, has been severely dented by a rash of poor reviews.

The film’s unconventional treatment of Arbus’s life — including an imaginary character whose skin is completely covered in fur — has also stirred concern in photographic circles that the artist’s legacy will be tainted by Kidman’s portrayal. The film shows little of Arbus’s photography and makes no attempt to explain her suicide.

The Wall Street Journal listed Fur as one of the “stinkers” of the Telluride film festival in Colorado. Variety, the Hollywood newspaper, said it carried “far more metaphorical weight than dramatic force”. Anne Thompson, the influential deputy film editor of The Hollywood Reporter, declared: “Fur is not an Oscar contender.”

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Warner Bros. tells us we may still see a stereoscopic 3D version of its upcoming CG-animated feature, Happy Feet. It was reported last week that the studio had scrapped plans release an IMAX 3D version, which was originally slated debut on Nov. 17, the same day the movie arrives on conventional theaters. Now we’re told that there was just a problem in striking the 3D prints in time for the day-and-date rollout. IMAX venues will instead be exhibiting the film 2D.

According to Warner Bros., there’s no truth to speculation that the poor box office performance of The Ant Bully forced execs to reconsider the costly 3D conversion of Happy Feet. The studio may go forward with plans for a 3D re-release, especially if Happy Feet does well this holiday season.

Directed by George Miller, whose credits include the Babe and Mad Max films, Happy Feet is a animated musical comedy starring Elijah Wood as the voice of Mumble, a penguin who uses fancy dance moves to make up for the fact that he is the worst singer in a culture that relies on good pipes. Hugh Jackman (Flushed Away) will voice Mumble’s father, Memphis, and Nicole Kidman will play his mother, Norma Jean. The voice cast also includes Robin Williams (Robots) and Brittany Murphy (King of the Hill) and Hugo Weaving (The Matrix trilogy).

NICOLE Kidman’s hopes of securing her third Oscar nomination have taken a tumble, with critics panning her new film Fur, based on the life of American photographer Diane Arbus.

Having won the 2002 best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours, the Australian film star appeared to have landed another dream role when she signed up to play Arbus, famous for photographing human freaks and who committed suicide in 1971.

The film shows little of Arbus’s photography and makes no attempt to explain her suicide.

The Wall Street Journal listed Fur as one of the “stinkers” of the Telluride film festival in Colorado. Variety, the Hollywood newspaper, said it carried “far more metaphorical weight than dramatic force”. And The Hollywood Reporter declared: “Fur is not an Oscar contender.”

The film is based on a 1984 biography by Patricia Bosworth, a former model who was photographed by Arbus.

To many Hollywood insiders, the project seemed a certain winner for Kidman, whose name had been circulating alongside Judi Dench (for her role in the film of Zoe Heller’s novel Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (for The Queen) and Kate Winslet (for Little Children) in early Oscar predictions.

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