Directing News: Jodie Foster Will Direct A Movie About Stealing The Mona Lisa; Ron Howard To Direct A Movie About Killing Fidel Castro

Two filmmakers have just lined-up some new projects for themselves. Jodie Foster, who hasn't directed a movie since 2016's Money Monster (remember that?), is set to make a film based on the Seymour Reit book The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa. Meanwhile, Ron Howard already has a new project in the works as well. He's going to helm The Fixer, about a disgraced FBI agent who teams up with the mob and the CIA to kill Fidel Castro.

In 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee at the Louvre, stole the Mona Lisa. Spoiler alert: the stolen painting was eventually recovered. But the story of the theft is going to be the subject of Jodie Foster's new film, according to Deadline. Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman will produce the project, which is based on the book The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa by Seymour Reit.

"This happened in 1911, and it was the thing that made the Mona Lisa so famous," Soros said. "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."

I'll confess I haven't really enjoyed a single film Foster has directed (she's a great actress, though!), but this sounds like it has a lot of potential to be something fun.

Ron Howard just finished shooting Netflix's Hillbilly Elegy, but he's not about to take some time off. The filmmaker is already working on his next project, The Fixer. Per Variety: "Based on the original pitch by Tyler Hisel, the film is based on the incredible true story of a disgraced FBI agent, who, at the height of the Cold War is tapped by the CIA to lead a ragtag team of CIA operatives and Chicago mobsters on an unlikely mission to try to assassinate Fidel Castro."

This actually sounds pretty damn cool, although I don't know if Howard is the right person to direct here (nothing against him – I like a lot of his movies). Howard's Hillbilly Elegy will arrive on Netflix sometime this year.