Norwegian director Harald Zwart says he has left MGM's sequel to Agent Cody Banks, according to local paper Dagbladet.

MGM had planned to begin production on Agent Cody Banks 2 in London in June, with teen heartthrob Frankie Muniz repeating his teen 007 role in the second instalment of the spy adventure from Bond studio MGM and German-owned independent Splendid Pictures. The first film has so far cashed in $44.6mm in US alone since its premiere five weeks ago.

After the $15m opening weekend, MGM set sequel deals for both director Harald Zwart and Muniz.

"I have quit the project because of budgetary disagreements between myself and the studio. I will let someone else do the job of making a sequel", Zwart told the Norwegian daily Dagbladet. According to Zwart, MGM's budget for the sequel is $26m - a price tag the director claims is too low. The first film also had a budget of around $25m

As a director, I have one area to defend and that is the quality of the film. The studio, on the other hand, is naturally enough concerned about the figures. If the commercial and the creative sides cannot meet, I think it is best to abandon the whole thing, Zwart said.

Zwart previously directed One Night At McCools, starring Liv Tyler and Matt Dillon for USA Films. He came to international attention with Swedish production Hamilton starring Peter Stormare, Mark Hamill and Lena Olin. The film, produced by Sweden's Moviola and TV4 and Norway's Yellow Cottage, was distributed by Buena Vista in the US and Scandinavia.

Topics