With the release of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 just around the corner, Sony is working up an appetite for food-related cinema.

Earlier today, we learned that the studio had set Seth Rogen for an R-rated animated pic about a sausage undergoing an existential crisis (really). Now it’s doubling down on the culinary genre with an untitled maple syrup heist pic, which has Rogen’s longtime pal Jason Segel attached to star and Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) on board to direct. Hit the jump for plot details and more.

Deadline reports that Sony Pictures has just acquired the pitch, described as a comedy with dramatic overtones. Chris Sheridan (Family Guy) will write the script, and Segel and Gordon will produce alongside Barry Josephson.

The story will be based on the real-life $18 million Canadian maple syrup heist, which Anne Sutherland reported on for the Montreal Gazette last year. Though the thieves had been siphoning off quantities of the sticky stuff since August 2011, their crime was not discovered until late last year when accountant at the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve noticed that the barrels inside the Montreal warehouse were empty.

Over 20 people have been arrested in conjunction with the crime so far, including one arrest made last week. To date, two-thirds of the stolen syrup has been recovered. While “maple syrup heist” isn’t a phrase we hear every day, the theft makes perfect sense once you understand that syrup goes for about $32 per gallon, or 13 times as much per unit as crude oil.

Segel has had a busy film career since his breakout turn in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but 2013 has been pretty low-key for him. His only movie appearance this year was a cameo in This Is the End. He’s now filming Sex Tape, which reunites him with Bad Teacher‘s Jake Kasdan and Cameron Diaz, and is currently starring in the ninth and final season of CBS’ How I Met Your Mother.

Gordon recently departed Horrible Bosses 2 due to scheduling conflicts with his other projects. Those include the new ABC sitcom The Goldbergs, the romcom Ground Control to Major Tom, Happy Madison’s video game pic Pixels, and MGM’s WarGames remake. His latest directorial effort Identity Thief was a hit, grossing $174 million worldwide for Universal.