Oscar Oddsmakers Tout Day-Lewis, Kidman

By Stephen M. Silverman

02/25/2003 at 01:00 PM EST

Immediately after his British Film Academy best actor win for his eye-popping role in Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," Daniel Day-Lewis has been tipped as the favorite to win the Best Actor Oscar come March 23.

Leading British bookmaker Ladbrokes says Day-Lewis, 45, has now overtaken former favorite Jack Nicholson, 65, who was considered a shoo-in for his quietly droll retired Midwestern widower in "About Schmidt."

The Day-Lewis/Nicholson odds are said to be 10/11, reports Reuters.

Sunday's BAFTA awards also confirmed Nicole Kidman's likelihood of copping the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Virginia Woolf in "The Hours."

"The significance of the BAFTAs as a form guide for the Oscar race has increased dramatically now that the British awards precede the Hollywood bonanza," Ladbrokes -- which believes "Chicago" will be named Oscar's Best Picture -- said in a statement.

And that's not the only professional news surrounding Day-Lewis and Kidman.

Day-Lewis will next star in "Rose and the Snake," a family drama co-written and directed by his wife, Rebecca Miller (daughter of esteemed "Death of a Salesman" playwright Arthur Miller), and Kidman may star with Brad Pitt in the action-adventure "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

In "Rose and the Snake," reports Variety, Day-Lewis will play the father of a 16-year-old, commune-raised daughter whom he has tried to shield from the modern world -- until he brings home a lover and her two sons.

For "Smith," Kidman is in talks to play one half of a bored married couple who discover they are enemy assassins hired to kill each other, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Furthermore, Kidman, 35, is still planning to play Samantha in "Bewitched," a film adaptation of the popular '60s sitcom about a pretty housewife with magical powers. The Hollywood Reporter says that "Sleepless in Seattle" screenwriter and director Nora Ephron has come on board to polish the script.