Jodie Foster is working on a film about the 1911 theft of da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”.
The film, which is currently untitled, is based on Seymour Reit’s book The Day They Stole The Mona Lisa that documents the heist and the ensuing media circus.
“This happened in 1911, and it was the thing that made the ‘Mona Lisa’ so famous,” Jeffrey Soros, principal of the Los Angeles Media Fund, told Deadline. “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.”
While no further details have been revealed, screenwriters have plenty of material to pull from. Franz Kafka was among those fascinated by the theft, while Pablo Picasso and French poet Guillaume Apollinaire were among those questioned by the police.
The thief, a petty criminal named Vincenzo Perugia, escaped capture for over two years, by which time the Mona Lisa had become a legend.
In the meantime, you can see the “Mona Lisa” come to life, courtesy of a group of researchers in Moscow and some creepy deepfake technology.