Ben Elton is to rewrite a spoof spy film starring Rowan Atkinson in the wake of the terrorist attacks on America.

Many scenes in the movie Johnny English: Rogue Male are said to be in bad taste in the wake of this month's events.

The script, which Elton is co-writing with former James Bond screenwriter Neal Purvis, extends the character created by Atkinson for the long-running Barclaycard adverts.

"A lot of it is in very bad taste now," a source told the Daily Express. "It's debatable whether anyone would want to watch a film about an utterly useless secret agent. It's not as funny an idea as it was a couple of weeks ago."

The £30million film is due to be filmed at Pinewood early next year, and the writers have given themselves six weeks to rejig the script.