New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori, who directed the James Bond movie "Die Another Day," has been arrested in a Hollywood prostitution sting while dressed in drag, AFP reports.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, Tamahori, 55, was arrested on January 8 when he allegedly sought sex with an undercover policeman while clad in women's clothes.

Officer Jason Lee of the Los Angeles Police Department says, "Mr Tamahori was arrested for soliciting. I can confirm he was dressed in women's clothing at the time of the arrest."

Prosecutors confirmed they had filed two misdemeanor charges against the Hollywood filmmaker: agreeing to engage in an act of prostitution and unlawfully loitering on Hollywood's Santa Monica Boulevard.

Frank Mateljan of the Los Angeles City Attorney's office says, "He was arrested after approaching an undercover officer who was sitting in his car and offering to perform a sex act."

"The defendant was dressed in drag, loitering on the sidewalk," the spokesman says.

Tamahori also directed last year's action adventure "XXX: State of the Union" with Samuel L. Jackson and Willem Dafoe and 2001's "Along Came a Spider" with Morgan Freeman.

Tamahori got his break in Hollywood directing an episode of the hit television series "The Sopranos" in 2000 and went on to do "Spider" the following year, before making "Die Another Day" starring Piece Brosnan and Oscar-winning Bond girl Halle Berry in 2002.

He is due to appear in court in Los Angeles on February 24 to be arraigned on the two charges. He is free on 2,000 dollars bail, according to the City Attorney's office.

Tamahori's lawyer, celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, did not immediately return calls for comment on the arrest of the filmmaker.