Nicole Kidman is in negotiations to play photographer Diane Arbus in the upcoming project, "Fur" says today's The Hollywood Reporter. Robert Downey Jr. also is in negotiations to join the project.

Diane Arbus' first published photographs appeared in Esquire in 1960. During the next decade, working for Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, and other major magazines, she published more than a hundred pictures, including portraits and photographic essays. In 1963 and 1966 she was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships for her project on "American Rites, Manners, and Customs." She traveled across the country, photographing the people, places, and events she described as "the considerable ceremonies of our present." The boldness of her subject matter and photographic approach were recognized as revolutionary.

She committed suicide in July of 1971. In the years following her death and the Museum of Modern Art's posthumous retrospective-- which was seen by more than a quarter of a million people before it began its three-year tour of the United States and Canada-- exhibitions devoted exclusively to her work have been mounted throughout Western Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. To this day critics continue to debate the meaning of her photographs and the intentions behind the imprint they've left on our culture is without dispute.

Steven Shainberg is set to direct which would mark his first feature since his quirky 2002 hit, "Secretary." The script is being written by his "Secretary" scribe, Erin Cressida Wilson, who is adapting from Patricia Bosworth's book "Diane Arbus: A Biography."

Thanks to 'Dave 4 Nic'