Gillian Anderson has scrapped plans to star as Ernest Hemingway's wife MATRHA GELLHORN on the big screen - because Nicole Kidman is filming the same "exact story" in another project.
The X-Files star spent two years developing a biopic of the author and his war reporter wife.
But Anderson has abandoned the movie following news that Oscar-winner Kidman and Clive Owen have signed up to star in Hemingway & Gellhorn, James Gandolfini's upcoming TV movie for U.S. channel HBO.
And the actress blames herself for taking too long to perfect the script.
She tells Britain's Daily Express, "The sad news is I have to let go of Gellhorn as HBO is doing the exact story with Nicole and Clive Owen. But these things happen and I was taking too long getting the script right and it's my own damned fault."