Batman BEGINS moviemaker Christopher Nolan has abandoned plans to direct a new big screen adaptation of cult British TV series THE PRISONER.

Nolan had signed up to turn the 1968 show - which starred Patrick MCGoohan - into a big budget blockbuster, but he has now quit the production amid rumours he is planning to start work on his third Batman movie early.

Nolan's departure has thrown The Prisoner into jeopardy - producer Barry Mendel admits they might not get the green light for the project until movie executives have gauged the success of the new TV version, which stars Ian MCKellen and Jim Caviezel and is set to air later this year (09).

Mendel tells CineFools, "’Nolan has dropped out of it but we have a first draft (of the script) by David and Janet Peoples who wrote Twelve Monkeys. It's a good draft and we're working on the script right now.’

“If the series was wildly popular that might effect us. The screenplay (we've got) is such a re-imagination of the series, if you think of The Avengers that wasn't a commercially successful film but it was very much in the spirit of the original show, this looks and feels so different that the tenants of the show are apparent but the execution of it is so different that I think it is unrecognisable."

