So what, exactly is going on with "Flora Plum?"

"There are so many reasons to make the movie," Jodie Foster assured us recently, insisting that her passion project will happen. "Someday, when the movie is made, you will see."

Back around the turn of the century, the double Oscar-winner thought so highly of Steven Rogers' script about 1940's circus performers that she turned-down a multimillion "Hannibal" payday, with reported intentions of making "Plum" instead. Foster had plans to direct Russell Crowe and Claire Danes, but production was shut down after Crowe injured his shoulder. Ewan McGregor and Meryl Streep later joined the cast, and cameras came this close to rolling in early 2004, but they also couldn't push the film to fruition.

"My new superstition is to never mention it," Foster teased. "Because every time I do, my film falls apart."

Nevertheless, Foster will admit that she's making plans to get behind the camera again. Following 1991's "Little Man Tate" and 1995's "Home for the Holidays," she's waited nearly twelve years between directing gigs. Put 2 and 2 together, and it sure seems like Foster is resurrecting the script about an eager-to-please teen being courted by a hirsute circus performer.

"I have nothing concrete coming up next, which is my favorite place to be," she said of her film-starring status. "I'm working on stuff as a director now, and trying to take it easy an actor."

Adding that she'll "hopefully" be directing something soon, talk of "Plum" came to the forefront. "No, I don't think it is [dead] at all, I think it will definitely have another life," she promised. "But see, if I start talking about it, then it will just get the plug pulled again; that's what happens."

Would you still pay to see "Flora Plum," knowing it's been delayed all these years? Does her passion make you more likely to see it? Or does Foster need to let it go?