Actor Armie Hammer exits Billion Dollar Spy film in wake of rape claim

Hammer has starred in films such as Call Me By Your Name

Armie Hammer has been dropped from the last remaining film in his schedule in the wake of a recent rape allegation.

According to Variety, he will no longer star opposite Mads Mikkelsen in Cold War drama The Billion Dollar Spy.

The Hollywood actor was accused of rape earlier this month, an allegation he denies.

Los Angeles police have said the Social Network and Call Me By Your Name star is a suspect in a sexual assault investigation that opened in February.

A 24-year-old woman known only as Effie made the allegation during a press conference earlier this month. She said the alleged rape happened in 2017.

His lawyer has described the allegation as "outrageous" and said all of Hammer's relations with the woman were "completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory".

The actor has also recently left two other forthcoming film and TV productions.

Hammer was due to appear alongside Jennifer Lopez in the movie Shotgun Wedding, but pulled out in January after private messages he allegedly sent detailing disturbing sexual fantasies were circulated online. He has been replaced by Josh Duhamel.

And he was also scheduled to star in The Offer, a series about the making of The Godfather film.

In The Billion Dollar Spy, he was set to play a CIA operative in 1970s and 80s Moscow who receives military secrets from a Soviet engineer. The drama will be directed by British film-maker Amma Asante.

Representatives for Asante and film company Walden Media declined to comment further. The BBC has also contacted Hammer's representative.

His departure means the only films Hammer has coming up are ones where filming had been completed before the allegations began to surface.

They are Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins, about the American Samoa football team, alongside Michael Fassbender and Elisabeth Moss; and Sir Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.