River Queen: According to Variety, filming has been suspended on Kiwi pic River Queen as thesp Samantha Morton struggles to recover from illness, producers announced Monday.

The schedule had already been rejigged to move forward scenes without Morton, and shooting stopped altogether for two days in mid-July, but the British thesp is required for all remaining scenes.

Unit publicist Sue May said Morton had been treated in hospital for severe influenza and secondary bacterial infections and though she was now out of the hospital, doctors had recommended up to a month of recuperation.

No restart date has been set.

Delays, which are covered by insurance, forced pic's other star, Kiefer Sutherland, to return to the U.S. last week to start shooting new episodes of "24." He will return later to pick up his unshot scenes.

The film, written and directed by Vincent Ward ("What Dreams May Come"), is a historical drama about a young woman caught between Maori and European cultures during 19th-century land wars.

River Queen was released September 12th, 2005 and stars Samantha Morton, Kiefer Sutherland, Cliff Curtis, Temuera Morrison, Anton Lesser, Rawiri Pene, Stephen Rea, Wi Kuki Kaa. The film is directed by Vincent Ward.