Verhoeven quits 'Thomas Crown Affair 2'

Pierce Brosnan's upcoming The Thomas Crown Affair sequel has been thrown into doubt after director Paul Verhoeven quit the project citing script disputes.

The actor announced plans last year to reprise his role as a high-class art thief in a sequel to the 1999 thriller, which was a remake of the 1968 Steve McQueen original.

Brosnan confirmed that he had begun work on the picture in February, insisting movie bosses had "a script and a structure that is good".

However, the production has now suffered a major setback after Total Recall filmmaker Verhoeven walked out on the film - blaming his exit on a "regime change" as well as a decision to go with a different script.

He told Moviehole: "I am not [involved] anymore. Things happened there, the regime changed. The initial ideas that they had about Thomas Crown 2 were interesting I thought.

"There was a script written by two young writers that used the fact that now we're living 15, 20 years later. Ultimately, [the studio] decided not to [use] that script anymore. Then there was a regime change. And basically I felt that I could not [continue]."