Universal Pictures and Imagine are about to give their abandoned "American Gangster" (aka. "Tru Blu") project another go with "Hotel Rwanda" writer-director Terry George reports Variety.

With just weeks before production was set to begin, the studio pulled the plug on the period pic which Antoine Fuqua was to direct with Denzel Washington and Benicio Del Toro, who both had pay-or-play deals. The cancellation was due to budget estimates pushing the film towards a number over the $100 million. Producer Brian Grazer will redevelop the film with George with an aim to make it for around $50 million.

Speculation has begun that "Rwanda" Oscar-nominated star Don Cheadle would be drafted to play the lead role of Frank Lucas, the mastermind of a scheme to smuggle heroin into the U.S. in the caskets of soldiers killed in Vietnam. Del Toro had been set to play narcotics lawman Richie Roberts, who brought down the Harlem drug kingpin called Superfly and then drafted Lucas to help bring down the dirty cops and overseas conspirators who made it easy to import heroin into the U.S.

No casting will be done until Universal is happy with the revised script and outlook.

Thanks to 'Ty'