Kidman Out of Von Trier Trilogy

They swore undying dedication to each other at the Cannes film festival, but Nicole Kidman and Lars von Trier will not be working together on the final two installments of his US trilogy, which began with Dogville.

After weathering a bad press from US critics convinced that Dogville was a thinly veiled assault on American values, and missing the Palme D'Or, which many thought was rightly theirs, the Australian star and Danish director are going their separate ways.

Kidman, who revealed at a press conference for the film that she intends to quit acting eventually, had committed herself to doing the final two films, Manderlay and Alabama.

But it was von Trier who cut her loose yesterday.

His Copenhagen producer Vibeke Windeloev said Kidman wanted to play the character Grace again, but would not be free until next October. Von Trier was impatient to get on.

"The Americans might be used to film schedules being set after the availability of the stars, but we just couldn't postpone until it fitted Nicole's," Windeloev told Screen International.

Von Trier reportedly drove Emily Watson to the edge making his first hit, Breaking the Waves - nicknamed Breaking the Wives for its alleged misogyny - and fell out with Björk whom he cast in Dancer in the Dark, he seemed to have met his match in Kidman.

Kidman, shooting a remake of The Stepford Wives, was not available for comment last night. She is also committed to playing Olympia, Alexander the Great's mother, for her friend Buz Luhrmann.

Von Trier will shoot Manderlay, set on a former slave plantation in the American South, with a new Grace in March.

Meanwhile Mike Newell is negotiating to become the first Briton to direct a Harry Potter film. He is being lined up to direct Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire next year, according to the industry magazine Variety.