Jodie Foster to Direct Drama Based On 1911 Mona Lisa Theft

January 30, 2020

According to Deadline, Academy Award-winner Jodie Foster has signed up to direct a yet-to-be-titled film based on the Seymour Reit book “The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa,” which details the theft of the famed Mona Lisa portrait. Los Angeles Media Fund will finance the film.

“This happened in 1911, and it was the thing that made the Mona Lisa so famous,” Los Angeles Media Fund’s Jeffrey Soros told Deadline while in Park City. “It was developed by Phoenix, which is still involved, but we have got a whole new script that Bill Wheeler is writing for Jodie Foster to direct. This is in the mold of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair,’ with ‘The Sting’ also a plot device comp. It is a fun story, and the crime itself is not sophisticated. Our story mixes truth and fiction, and the focus is on the characters behind orchestrating the theft.”

“The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa” was published on April 29, 2009, and follows Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, who felt the painting deserved to be displayed in Italy. His convictions led him to snatch the painting and keep it for two years before he was caught attempting to sell it to the director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The painting returned to the Louvre in 1914.

Foster was last seen on the big screen in 2018’s Hotel Artemis. Her directing credits include Little Man Tate, Home for the Holidays, The Beaver, Money Monster, and TV episodes of Black Mirror, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards and Tales from the Darkside.

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