Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban walk the red carpet at Sydney premiere of Expats

Nicole Kidman returned to the Sydney cinema she’d opened in 1996 last night - check out these incredible pics, taken 27 years apart.

Nicole Kidman walked the red carpet at Sydney’s Verona Cinema on Wednesday night for the premiere of her latest series, Expats.

And she brought husband Keith Urban as her date, the pair having jetted into Sydney this week. Kidman looked every inch the A-list movie star, wearing a strapless ivory gown with a thigh high slit.

The premiere also saw Kidman return to the cinema she’d originally opened back in 1996, when she was in her late 20s, now a 56-year-old Hollywood legend as the Verona closes in a matter of weeks.

A six-part limited series directed by The Farewell director Lulu Wang and co-executive produced by Kidman, Expats is based on the internationally best-selling novel The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee and launches globally on Prime Video on January 26, 2024.

Nicole Kidman hits the red carpet for Expats. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Kidman explained she had a special connection to last night’s venue, the Verona. Picture: MATRIX

Unusually, the audience at last night’s screening were treated not to the series’ first episode but to its fifth, something Kidman acknowledged was “weird”. But she explained to the audience ahead of the screening that this particular feature-length episode of the series, which looks at the intersecting lives of a group of “expats” living in Hong Kong, could also be enjoyed as a stand-alone film.

She serves as star and EP on the new show. Picture: MATRIX.

Expats is one of a number of streaming projects Kidman has in the works. Picture: MATRIX

And Kidman also confessed there was a bittersweet tinge to the evening, given she’d opened the Verona cinema with a premiere of her classic film To Die For back in early 1996. Now she was back, weeks before the cinema is set to close its Oxford Street location and relocate to Moore Park.

Kidman opening the Verona in February 1996.

At 29, her star was still on the rise.

Kidman noted that in the 27-odd years since she’d opened the cinema, she’d seen countless films at the Verona.

Meanwhile, Urban was photographed arriving at Sydney airport earlier this week with the couple’s two daughters – and in a sweet gesture to his wife of 17 years, he returned to the airport the next day to collect her as she arrived, the pair walking out hand-in-hand.

Nicole & Keith. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

The couple have been married since 2006. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Expats is one of a number of streaming television projects Kidman has in the works.

Back in October, Kidman was in Sydney on a SXSW panel along with film and television producer Per Saari, who is also the co-founder of her production company, Blossom Films.

The duo have produced some critically acclaimed dramas in recent years, including Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, which they adapted from the best-selling novels of Australian author Liane Moriarty.

Next up they will adapt another one of Moriarty’s novels, The Last Anniversary, into a series.