The pic was due to shoot in September, starring Scarlett Johanssen and Colin Farrell. But Jordan pulled out in the past week, having concluded that he could not make it work with the proposed budget and logistics.

He will switch instead to direct "The Brave One" for Warner Bros, a revenge thriller starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard, which is set to shoot this summer.

Jordan originally tried to set up "Borgia" four years ago, first with IEG and then with Myriad. Ewan McGregor and Christina Ricci were attached to star, but with the collapse of Germany's Neuer Markt, the financiers simply could not make the figures add up for a project then budgeted in the $50-60 million range.

"Borgia" re-emerged with a much reduced budget and a new cast at last November's AFM, where Summit successfully pre-sold selected foreign territories. But U.S. distribs still baulked at a domestic deal.

Pic was due to be produced by Jack Rapke of Imagemovers, who commissioned the script from Jordan several years ago, along with Christopher Eberts and Chris Roberts of Ascendant Pictures.

They hoped to shoot this April, but the schedule was pushed back to September because of Farrell's availability.

Nonetheless, "Borgia" remains a passion project for Jordan, and this is unlikely to be the last time he tries to get it made.

Jordan's latest pic, "Breakfast on Pluto," screened Saturday in Berlin's Panorama Special sidebar.