Baz Luhrmann tipped to film Kidman's Sydney wedding

Jun 23, 2006, 17:20 GMT

Sydney - Film director Baz Luhrmann was Friday the top tip to produce the Sydney wedding video of actor Nicole Kidman marrying country music singer Keith Urban.

The couple are expected to tie the knot on Sunday afternoon at St Patrick's Catholic Church in the seaside suburb of Manly.

Luhrmann spent time with Kidman at her parents' home, sparking talk that he would be shooting the video and helping with the creative aspects of what is likely to be the biggest society wedding in Australia this year.

Luhrmann has been friends with Kidman for a long time, directing the 39-year-old in the feature film Moulin Rouge and in a commercial for Chanel perfume. Kidman will also star alongside Hugh Jackman in Luhrmann's next feature film, an as-yet-untitled love story to be shot in Australia later this year.

Manly police confirmed to The Sydney Morning Herald that Sunday was the appointed time of the nuptials in a cliff-top chapel overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It will be a second marriage for the Oscar-winner.

New Zealand-born Urban, 38, brought up in Queensland but who left Australia in 1992 to pursue a singing career in the United States, has not been married before. His parents still live in Queensland.

'We are very happy to be back in Australia,' the couple said in a joint statement released when they arrived in Australia earlier this week. 'We have come home to celebrate our wedding with our family and friends.'

Antonia Kidman, Nicole's sister, is expected to be maid-of-honour. Isabella, 13, one of two children Kidman adopted during a 10-year marriage to fellow actor Tom Cruise that ended in 2001, is rumoured to be bridesmaid.

Isabella and her 11-year-old brother, Connor, arrived in a private jet from Japan, where they had been spending time with Cruise, who is there promoting the third edition of the Mission Impossible series.

Kidman arrived in her Lear jet from China, where she attended the Shanghai Film Festival and earned money promoting Swiss watches.

Urban, recently voted 'sexiest country music singer' by the US-based Country Weekly magazine, was with Kidman in China.

The pair are spending time apart until they meet on Sunday at the Cerretti Chapel at St Patrick's. Kidman is living in the Point Piper harbourside mansion that was her home in Sydney when she was married to Cruise. Urban is staying at the InterContinental Hotel in the city centre.

Kidman is tipped to sell the Point Piper house. Kidman and Urban last month together bought a penthouse on a wooden pier near Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The glamour couple has set up home in Nashville. 'I've moved to Tennessee for my personal life,' Kidman told reporters in Shanghai. 'I'm establishing my new home there.'

They met in January 2005 at an Australian government function in Los Angeles, where Kidman was then living.

Best-friend and fellow Australian Naomi Watts is likely to be at the wedding, along with fellow actors Russell Crowe and Jackman. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi Deng might fly in. Murdoch's son Lachlan, who lives in Sydney with wife and former model Sarah O'Hare, is also thought to be on the guest list.