Kiwi actress set to star opposite Hollywood legend

Kiwi actress Anna Hutchison has landed the female lead opposite movie superstar Nicolas Cage in a hard-hitting Hollywood thriller about rape.

In Vengeance: A Love Story Cage plays a detective who seeks vengeance against four men who assaulted a single mother in front of her own daughter.

Hutchison, 30 - who has appeared in horror movie The Cabin in the Woods and TV series Spartacus - will play the woman in question.

Her character suffers from survivor's guilt as she faces her attackers in a courtroom where she practically finds herself on trial.

The movie aims to explore the impact of that brutal act of violence on three generations of women and is based on Joyce Carol Oates' award-winning 2003 novel Rape: A Love Story. Filming is already under way in Atlanta, Georgia.

Cage said he was excited to work on Vengeance and tell "a tale of the suffering too many women have endured".

The Leaving Las Vegas actor was also tipped to direct the film, but a scheduling conflict forced him to stand down, according to insiders.

Hutchison's New Zealand agents Johnson and Laird Management said the actress was thrilled at securing the part.

"Anna has just begun the shoot in Atlanta and is delighted to be working alongside such a remarkable Oscar-winning actor as Nic Cage and in such a strong lead female role," spokeswoman Imogen Johnson said.