Having missed out on the chance to direct Columbia's Muhammad Ali biopic, Spike Lee is reported to be furious over the studio's decision to turn the project over to Michael Mann. An unnamed friend of Lee's told New York's Daily News yesterday that "Spike felt that only a black man could do justice to the story of Cassius Clay He still feels that way."

The Ali picture has become one of Hollywood's hottest properties over the past 12 months. Last summer, the film was to have been directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, with regular collaborator Will Smith in the lead role. Then, perhaps stung by the comparative critical and commercial failure of the team's Wild Wild West, Sonnenfeld bailed from the project, leaving Smith still on board. In January, Columbia were still deliberating between Lee and Mann.

The final decision is rumoured to have come down to Smith, and the actor opted for Mann, who is currently Oscar-nominated for his work on The Insider. Columbia bosses are reported to have been relieved by the decision, who worried that in Lee's hands the Ali project would be more racially charged and therefore less marketable. "They felt it would become a narrow, militant movie," admits an unnamed studio source. "They thought Mann could deliver a more mainstream movie."

For Lee, the current controversy boasts a distinct whiff of déjà vu. Back in 1991, he was vocal in his annoyance that Warner Bros had chosen Norman Jewison to direct its Malcolm X movie, arguing that the white, Jewish film-maker could have no affinity for his subject. On that occasion, Jewison eventually moved away from the project, allowing Lee to fill the role.

This time around, Columbia's jitters and the commercially-minded influence of Will Smith appear to have conspired against him. The studio source claims that in the end, the choice of director was Smith's call alone: "If he really wanted Spike, he could have had him."