Michael Fleming, columnist for the trade newspaper Daily Variety, said the 77-year-old actor developed the illness just before he was due to start filming a cameo appearance in Scary Movie 2.

It comes just days after he was said to have signed a $2m (�1.4m) deal to play a priest in the film.

Ted Casablanca, columnist for the entertainment website E! Online, reported that "concerned" sources on the film's set said the American screen legend was due to start filming but instead went into hospital in the Los Angeles area.

They said telephone calls to Brando's agents, movie distributor Dimension Films and Scary Movie 2 producers Brillstein-Grey Entertainment were not returned.

Hit roles

Brando is due to play a priest performing an exorcism in the opening scene of the follow-up to last summer's hit spoof horror film, Scary Movie.

Brando is famed for his roles in such films as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront and The Godfather.

E! Online reports that Scary Movie 2 filmmakers still want him to shoot the scene when he recovers.

His next project will be starring alongside Robert De Niro and Edward Norton in crime drama The Score.