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A new biopic project to bring James Bond creator
Ian Fleming's life story to the silver screen has
been revealed as Leonardo DiCaprio signs on to produce
for Warner Bros...
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Ian Fleming Biopic In Development
13th May 2008
Leonardo DiCaprio has become a producer on a project to bring
the life of James Bond creator Ian
Fleming to the silver screen. DiCaprio's film company Appian
Way recently came on the project, according to the LA
Times.
Co-producer Andrew Lazar ("Confessions of a Dangerous
Mind," "Get Smart") was first to champion
the concept. "It's going to be very different from
the Bond films. There are a lot of different ways to crack
biopics, but we're not trying to emulate a Bond movie...
The idea that this guy's life informed the James Bond character
is pretty fascinating", he told the paper.
The project was born around October 2005, the same time
that Daniel
Craig was announced to the world as the sixth actor to
take on the role of 007 for the EON Productions film
series, when screenwriter Damian Stevenson sold his script
to studio Warner Bros.
Reports state that Stevenson then
spent months playing to-and-fro with the WB legal department,
sorting out the accuracy of Fleming's life story. Dozens
of drafts were produced with Lazar, and Stevenson raided
the archives of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University
for 'out of print Fleming biographies'. |
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Above: Leonardo DiCaprio |
Stevenson said, "It's the real James Bond. In England,
Ian Fleming's exploits are much better well known. Talking to
people
out here [Los Angeles],
no one had any idea that M was based on a real person, Miss Moneypenny
was based on a real person."
The latest screenplay reportedly starts on the eve of Ian
Fleming's wedding to Lady Anne Rothmere in Jamaica in 1952, just
months before his debut James Bond novel "Casino
Royale" was published. The screenplay then uses flash backs
to tell the story of his time as a Reuters journalist in Moscow
and as a Commander of Naval Intelligence during WWII.
Above: Ian Fleming in his office
in 1958
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According to the LA Times, DiCaprio took interest in the Fleming
project during the writers' strike which ended in February 2008.
He is reportedly looking to 'take the script in a different direction
with a new writer'.
Although many media outlets are touting DiCaprio
to play Ian Fleming in the film as well as produce, this is highly
unlikely:
Fleming was 45 at the time of Casino Royale's publication; DiCaprio
is
33.
Fleming's life has been the subject of two previous
productions: Goldeneye (1989)
starring Charles Dance as Fleming, and a 2005 UK television special
"Bondmaker" starring Ben Daniels.
MI6 contacted Warner Bros but did not receive comment
by the time of publication.
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