Jamie Foxx attached to Annie

Jamie Foxx is reportedly set to take on a starring role in Will Smith's Annie.

Heat Vision reports the Academy Award-winning actor will take on the role of a character named Benjamin Stacks in the feature. The persona is an adaptation of Oliver 'Daddy' Warbucks, the billionaire whose heart was eventually won over by loveable orphan Annie.

Easy A and Friends with Benefits director Will Gluck will direct the feature.

Quvenzhané Wallis, the nine-year-old actress who received an Oscar nod this year for her work in Beasts of the Southern Wild, will play the titular role.

The Americana musical based off comic strip Little Orphan Annie, the story centres on an orphan named Annie who gets caught up in a host of adventures on her quest to find a family.

Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment will oversee production of the feature for Sony Pictures. Representing Overbrook, Will, his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith and his business partner James Lassiter will team up with fellow producers Jay-Z and Marcy Media representatives Jay Brown and Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith.

Director Will is revising a script written by Emma Thompson and Aline Brosh McKenna.

Annie will begin filming in the fall and is aiming for a 2014 release date.