Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman lead less private lives in 'Family Fang'

NEW YORK — In the new film The Family Fang, an adaptation of Kevin Wilson's best-selling novel, Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman — who both savor time out of the spotlight with their spouses and children — play a brother and sister whose performance-artist parents put them on public display during their childhood.

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The irony isn't lost on the stars, both also involved with Fang (opens Friday in New York, expands nationwide and available on demand May 6) behind the scenes — Bateman as director, Kidman as producer. The movie introduces middle-aged siblings Annie, an actress in a slump, and Baxter, a struggling writer, "at the point that they're finally able to see past their parents' veneer," says Bateman, 47, grabbing a quick bite with Kidman before Fang's premiere at Tribeca Film Festival.

Mom and Dad Camille and Caleb Fang, played by Maryann Plunkett and Christopher Walken (and in flashbacks by Kathryn Hahn and Jason Butler Harner), have gone missing. Foul play is suspected, but not by Annie, who enlists Baxter to help determine whether the disappearance is a hoax.

"They're not parents first; they're artists first," Bateman explains of the elder Fangs. Granted, at a time when it's not unusual to see little ones documented by relatives on social media, their elaborate pranks — which have ranged from a bank robbery involving fake blood and lollipops to a park scene in which the kids are aggressively humiliated — might be seen as a sardonic caricature of more common behavior.

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"When parents use their children in what they consider their art form — or any form — there are repercussions for the children," says Kidman, 48, nursing a cappuccino.

Kidman was drawn to the dark humor and poignance in Wilson's 2011 book, and recruited acclaimed playwright David Lindsay-Abaire — whom she'd worked with previously on a film adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Hole — to craft the screenplay. "David is so good, so quirky," Kidman says. "This is unusual material, and he got it."

"I'd never read anything so close to my own sensibility as a writer," says Lindsay-Abaire of Wilson's novel. "There's a similar tone of off-the-wall comedy mixed with what I hope is genuine, deep emotion. The humor and pain comes from the same well."

When Kidman tapped Bateman to direct, "I thought it was a gag," the actor said. "I had only done one film," 2013's Bad Words. "But it was amazing," Kidman quickly counters, adding, "When you work with a director who's also an actor, there's this shorthand. A lot of directors don't know much about actors; we're these mysterious, scary creatures."

The two stars bonded further over what Bateman dryly calls their "functional lives." Like Kidman and husband Keith Urban, Bateman and his wife, Amanda Anka, have two young daughters. (Kidman has two older children from her previous marriage to Tom Cruise.)

"I don't think it takes any special effort to lead a normal life," Bateman says. "There are some people in our business — no better, no worse — who have more of an instinct to be exposed. Nicole and I just love doing what we do creatively, and care less about it as a lifestyle."