Fallen star Wesley Snipes has been offered a comeback role once his tax troubles have been resolved - director Spike Lee insists he's the only man he wants to play his James Brown.

Many feared Lee and Snipes had fallen out when the director dropped the Blade star from his new war movie Miracle at St. Anna - but the moviemaker insists he had to recast Snipes' role when the actor's legal woes meant he was unable to film abroad.

Lee explains, "He was cast in the role that Derek Luke plays, but he wasn't allowed out of the country due to his tax situation. He couldn't get a visa, and making St. Anna would've required him to spend extensive time in Italy."

But the filmmaker, who teamed up with Snipes for classic 1991 movie Boyz N the Hood, insists he has a part waiting for the actor once his ongoing appeal for freedom in light of a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion is resolved.

Lee tells King magazine, "He's a phenomenal actor, and I truly feel that he'll regain that power he once had.

"If my James Brown picture ever gets made, he'll be playing James - and he'd kill in that, without a doubt. He still has chops." (c) WENN