More than one year after first signing on, director John Singleton has reportedly backed out of the Untitled Tupac Shakur Project, with Showbizz 411 claiming that Carl Franklin is set to replace him at the helm. Carl Franklin's name was attached to a casting call which is seeking an actor to play Tupac Shakur himself. John Singleton had been working on the script for quite some time, and even discussed the project at length on the Oscars red carpet just months ago. But the director recently revealed to XXL Magazine that the project is on hold. Here's what he had to say in the interview:

"I think the picture is not going to be good unless it's offensive to some people. So, whenever you make a movie, you always have different elements that people have their say about. But when I'm making my movies, John Singleton movies, it's really just my voice. So I can't be listening to all the other suggestions of all these other people and s--t. So we're not going to pull the trigger on that until it's right. If somebody else wants to do something different then they can do something different. But if it's going to be right, it's going to be right. It's going to be something that potentially adorns 'Pac's legacy."

A source for The Wrap revealed there are creative differences between the director and Morgan Creek Productions.

"There are major creative differences. Honestly, Morgan Creek can make a sub-par Tupac movie and move on. If John Singleton makes a bad Tupac movie? It's something he'd have to live with for the rest of his life."

The original script was written by Steven Bagatourian, Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, which was rewritten by John Singleton. The project has seen its fair share of obstacles to overcome, after Tupac Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, sued Morgan Creek Productions over his life rights. Afeni Shakur is now an executive producer on the project, which Antoine Fuqua was originally set to direct back in 2011. James G. Robinson, David C. Robinson and L.T. Hutton are set to produce, although it isn't clear when production may begin.

No story details have been confirmed, but the project is said to follow rapper Tupac Shakur's rapid rise to fame in the 1980s and 1990s, before he was gunned down and killed in Las Vegas in 1996. The murder case still remains unsolved to this day. Carl Franklin most recently directed Bless Me, Ultima, and his other directorial credits include Out of Time, High Crimes and Devil in a Blue Dress.