Jodie Foster joins Blomkamp's Elysium

The Panic Room star will star alongside Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley in the Neill Blomkamp-directed sci-fi movie.

Not much is known about the script but it will be the next project for Blomkamp, who marked his first directorial project with the well-received South Africa-based alien drama District 9 in 2009.

It is said that it will tell the story of a distant planet in the far future.

Jodie is set to have a busy year ahead - she will next be seen in cinemas in Mel Gibson vehicle The Beaver, about a man who begins talking to a hand puppet and will shoot Roman Polanski-movie God of Carnage alongside Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C Reilly in 2011.

Her career has been quiet in recent years, having not starred in a movie since 2008 adventure comedy Nim's Island alongside Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin.