In its third major acquisition of the week, Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) has boarded The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys, a project developed by Jodie Foster's Egg Pictures, which Foster will co-produce and take a supporting role in - as a one-legged nun.

IEG will fully finance the $15m-$20m film which was originally set up with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (PFE) - and then Universal - under Egg's deal with PFE.

Foster will produce alongside her Egg partner Meg LeFauve and Jay Shapiro of Cinema-Go-Go, which co-developed the picture. Director is Peter Care, an award-winning commercials director. The screenplay is written by Jeff Stockwell and Michael Petroni from the novel by Chris Furhman.

ICM agent Ken Kamins who was instrumental in bringing IEG Robert Altman's Dr T And The Women and Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York, will represent US distribution rights on behalf of IEG.

The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys follows Traffic starring Harrison Ford and Smoke And Mirrors set to star Catherine Zeta Jones as the third major talent driven project which IEG has agreed to finance in the last week. IEG works in tandem with publicly traded German rights broker Splendid Film - which bought a 49% stake in IEG last summer. King is selling foreign rights at AFM.

The movie, which includes several animated sequences to be created by Todd McFarlane (Spawn), tells the story of a gang of Catholic school boys caught drawing obscene comic books who plan a heist to outdo their previous stunfs. It is executive produced by John Watson, Pen Densham and Guy McElwaine of Trilogy Entertainment Group alongside Graham King. It is scheduled to start shooting on May 1, 2000.

Foster will complete The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys before embarking on her third film as a director - Flora Plum starring Russell Crowe and Claire Danes - for USA Films and Good Machine International.