Jodie Foster will direct "The Sugar Kings" for Universal Pictures, says Variety. The story is about "a young lawyer who teams with a veteran public-interest attorney to take on powerful sugar barons who are exploiting cane-cutting migrant workers."

The screenplay by Ned Zeman and Daniel Barnz is based on a Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner, the same journalist who inspired "The Insider" several years ago.

Brenner's article shined a spotlight on "Alfy and Pepe Fanjul, who owned a sugar-manufacturing empire in Florida. The magnates were hounded by attorney Edward Tuddenham, who charged that the brothers treated 20,000 sugar-cane cutters like slave labor, hiding behind their well-developed political connections and social standing."

Ms. Foster will be directing for certain -- and starring too, most likely.