Eidos-Montreal are in the early development stages for Thief 4, the developer confirmed this morning.

Last week we heard that an announcement was coming, but there’s not much grist in the news that hit today.

Eidos-Montreal, which is currently producing Deus Ex 3, has recruited the "very best core team" for Thief 4, we’re told.

"We’re in the early development stages for Thief 4, but this is an incredibly ambitious and exciting project for Eidos," said Stéphane D’Astous, General Manager at Eidos-Montréal. "While it’s too early for us to offer any specific game details, right now we are focused on recruiting the very best talent to join the core team at the studio and help us make what we believe will be one of the most exciting games on the market."

What we heard: When Eidos Montreal announced that it was working on Deus Ex 3 in November 2007, many fans of the thought-dead sci-fi series rejoiced. Five months later, the same studio sparked rumors that it was working on a new version of Thief, another classic franchise created by now-defunct Looking Glass Studios and continued by the later-closed Ion Storm.

Now, one year after Eidos Montreal declared that its "AAA project" would begin with the letter "T," the soon-to-be-Japanese-owned British publisher’s French-Canadian shop has posted a new teaser banner for the game. On the lower-left of its official site, the studio posted a small black-and-white notice that promises "Eidos Montreal’s second project to be revealed soon."