LONDON: Oscar winner Nicole Kidman has replaced Rachel Weisz in "The Railway Man" as Colin Firth’s wife.

Weisz was required to do additional shooting on "The Bourne Legacy" and "Oz: The Great and Powerful", as a result she was forced to drop out of the project.

Directed by Jonathan Teplitzy, the shooting of "The Railway Man" will begin in April. The movie is based on Eric Lomax’s autobiography about his horrific experiences as a Japanese prisoner in World War II, and his remarkable reconciliation with one of his captors 30 years later.

While Firth will be Lomax, Kidman will portray his wife Patti, who played a key role in helping him to face up the longstanding psychological damage caused by his wartime horrors, and in bringing him back together with one of the Japanese officers who had participated in his torture.