Nicole Kidman in the action-thriller "The Peacemaker" (1997) as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The film grossed $110,000,000 worldwide. In 1998, she co-starred with Sandra Bullock in the poorly received fantasy "Practical Magic" as a modern-day witch. Kidman returned to her work on stage the same year in the David Hare play "The Blue Room", which opened in London. In 1999, Kidman reunited with then husband, Tom Cruise, to portray a married couple in "Eyes Wide Shut", the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. The film was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of
Stanley Kubrick saying that "Stanley is unusually perceptive, and delicately attuned to people. He has an adroit intellect, and is a creative thinker—not a repeater, not a fact-gatherer. He digests what he learns and brings to a new project an original point of view and a reserved passion". The two worked on a script for six months, begun by a then unknown Sam Peckinpah. Many disputes broke out over the project, and in the end, Kubrick distanced himself from what would become "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961). In February 1959, Kubrick received a phone call from Kirk Douglas asking him to direct "Spartacus" (1960),