Is Jodie Foster looking to get 'Flora Plum' rolling... finally?

Flora Plum, Jodie Foster's long-in-the-works, much-cursed Depression-era circus movie, could still become a reality. The film, which would mark the actor's third feature as a director, nearly got off the ground in 2000, but was derailed when then-star Russell Crowe suffered an injury while preparing for his role. It's had other starts and stops in the intervening years as well. Then, when EW.com caught up with Foster at ShoWest on Thursday (where she was promoting her upcoming family film Nim's Island with Abigail Breslin), we asked what she has on tap next, and the actress suggested that the door is open to give Flora another shot. "We'll see, we'll see," Foster answered when asked about the project. "I've decided now I no longer talk about this — because as soon as I talk about it, then it always ends up tanking, and then I have to explain why it tanked." As it happens, Flora Plum isn't the only project Foster has had a hard time bringing to the big screen: When EW interviewed her last fall, she said that Sugarland, a movie about migrant workers that she was to make with Robert De Niro, had also fallen apart.