Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez?s upcoming film project is reportedly in financial trouble. According to the New York Daily News, her planned film version of ?Carmen,? where she will take on the starring role, is in dire need of investors for its $50 million budget.

?Ray? helmer Taylor Hackford, who is directing the project, tells the newspaper: ?'Carmen' is on its last legs. Studios are so frightened at the moment that they are looking for outside money. There is a great deal of fear in Hollywood. Many of the films are not working [at the box office]."

Hackford said the Lopez version of ?Carmen? would not be derived from the Georges Bizet opera, which featured the protagonist as a flirty Spanish dancer who gets her comeuppance at the hands of her spurned lover. The studios, according to Hackford, believe the subject matter is too adult for J.Lo?s more family-friendly fan base.

"Carmen is not a sweet, nice girl. This is a piece about a criminal," says Hackford. "We want to do a tough, hard version, but Hollywood thinks the audience [for Jennifer Lopez] is 13-year-old girls. ... It has an ending that Hollywood does not like to make."

In other J.Lo news, the two men who were arrested for trying to extort Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony for $1 million were arraigned late Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Tito Moses, 31, and Steven Wortman, 49 were charged with conspiracy, attempted grand larceny and possession of stolen property after trying to ransom the couple?s stolen wedding video after first shopping it around unsuccessfully to media outlets including People, Us Weekly and "Access Hollywood," according to a criminal complaint filed against them.