Jodie Foster to direct movie about Mona Lisa theft

Actor-director Jodie Foster has lined up her next directorial with an untitled film about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa.

Bill Wheeler is adapting the script from Seymour Reit's book "The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa", which narrated the story of the famous robbery at the Louvre Museum, reported Deadline.

The crime was committed by Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee at the museum, who believed that the painting from noted painter Leonardo da Vinci should have been displayed in Italy.

Peruggia kept the painting for two years and was caught when he attempted to sell it to the director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was returned to the Louvre in 1914.

The project is being backed by Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman's Los Angeles Media Fund.

Foster, who has films such as "Little Man Tate", "Home for the Holidays", "The Beaver" and "Money Monster", also has another project in her kitty.

The 57-year-old Oscar winner is set to direct and star in the English-language remake of Icelandic-Ukrainian thriller "Woman at War".