Judge: Snipes can travel abroad for movies (AP)

OCALA, Fla. - Wesley Snipes will be allowed to leave the United States to work on two movies while his lawyers appeal his tax convictions.

Federal judge William Terrell Hodges on Wednesday approved the actor's motion to travel to London and Bangkok, Thailand. Snipes will be in England about three days this month for post-production editing of "Gallowwalker," and in Thailand for eight weeks to film "Chasing the Dragon."

A jury convicted the action star in February of three counts of willfully failing to file his income taxes. The 45-year-old Snipes, star of the "Blade" trilogy, "White Men Can't Jump" and "Jungle Fever" among other films, has appealed the convictions and his three-year prison sentence to the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta.

Prosecutors asked Hodges to deny Snipes' request to travel abroad, saying he was a flight risk.