Plans for movie star Chow Yun-fat to remake The King and I in Thailand have been scotched for the same reasons Bangkok authorities blacklisted the Yul Brynner version 40 years ago.
A film board panel fears the script of Anna and the King is still too close to the original and flouts the strict criminal laws of lese-majesty surrounding the Thai royal family.
The panel's rejection comes despite involvement in the 20th Century Fox project of two royal relatives, Suphinda Chakraphand and his sister Malinee, the Thai-language Matichon newspaper has revealed.
Chow, widely popular in Thailand, is set to star as King Mongkut alongside Jodie Foster, the Oscar-winning star of Silence of the Lambs, as English governess Anna Leonowens.
Chow made his name in Hong Kong films such as Hard Boiled, before going on to Hollywood, where he recently starred in The Replacement Killers.
The original started out as a long-running smash in London's West End and Broadway and catapulted Yul Brynner to Hollywood stardom when the 1956 film won him an Oscar. The film is based on the now widely disputed account by Leonowens of her time as an English teacher at the royal Siamese court during Mongkut's reign from 1851-68.