'Fleming' biopic in the works

Golrush007

What do you think of the news regarding the Ian Fleming biopic which is in development?

It sounds exciting - but I just hope that they do a better job than the 1989 TV film starring Charles Dance. Dance was good in the role, and the film was fairly entertaining but as far as I know a lot of it was pure fiction.

I just hope that Leonardo diCaprio doesn't plan on playing Fleming himself!!

scaramanga1

Golrush007 wrote:

What do you think of the news regarding the Ian Fleming biopic which is in development?

It sounds exciting - but I just hope that they do a better job than the 1989 TV film starring Charles Dance. Dance was good in the role, and the film was fairly entertaining but as far as I know a lot of it was pure fiction.

I just hope that Leonardo diCaprio doesn't plan on playing Fleming himself!!

It wouldn't surprise me -after all he did don the Connery Goldfinger three piece suit and drive a DB5 in Catch Me if You Can.

Still I'm looking forward to it. I've got Goldeneye with Dance in on VHS -it is reasonably entertaining and worth owning IMO.

Golrush007

scaramanga1 wrote:

It wouldn't surprise me -after all he did don the Connery Goldfinger three piece suit and drive a DB5 in Catch Me if You Can.

Still I'm looking forward to it. I've got Goldeneye with Dance in on VHS -it is reasonably entertaining and worth owning IMO.

I guess you might be right. Still, anything about Fleming is bound to be of interest - and I have been impressed with many of DiCaprio's performances - 'Catch Me If You Can' included.

I also have Goldeneye, starring Charles Dance. The DVD was given away in one of the papers - The Mail of Sunday, I think. As you say, definitely worth owning

7289

It would be nice if they concentrated on the actual life and charecter of Ian Fleming and stop all the c**p about him "being" James Bond.

There is an obsession in the media about trying to prove Fleming was Bond, or that James Bond was based on one or ten people Fleming knew.

They don't do that with Hemingway, Fitzgerald or Le'Carre or any other writer, even though everyone knows that anytime a writer picks up a pen he is essential teling tales about himself.

Fleming is frankly alot more interesting than his creation!

Napoleon Plural

I totally agree. If anything, it would be better to show how different Fleming was at times, in paricular being henpecked by his shrew of a wife. Maybe Jude Law could pass for a young Fleming but I can't really think of an actor who resembles Fleming too much these days.

Barbel

Charles Dance was good, though the film was average at best and did take some liberties with the facts (as related in the various biographies, starting with Pearson). The later film with Jason Connery was terrible and about as accurate as The Sun. It's about time for a decent version.

emtiem

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Maybe Jude Law could pass for a young Fleming but I can't really think of an actor who resembles Fleming too much these days.

Hugh Laurie maybe? I was really surprised at how much Dance looked like him in Goldeneye; I just never thought he looked like Fleming but somehow he did. I thought the film was terrible, all those awful Bond gags.

7289

Charles Dance is a superb actor, and did a nice turn as IF. Like TD he was handed a pretty sorry script and did his best to achieve a decent charecterization.

Napoleon Plural was right on when he mentions the "differences" between Fleming and Bond. That should really be at the heart of any more bios.

Mr Martini

Who's trying to get the film made?

Loeffelholz

I agree that the Charles Dance film is worth owning...I wish I owned it I had a (now long-lost) VHS recording of the TV telecast...It's especially good later on...the scene where Fleming is told that he's killing himself with booze and cigarettes is particularly good.

Sounds like Leo is attached as a producer; I guess we'll see if gives himself the lead :v If so, I'm confident it will be a good performance. Di Caprio gets a lot of grief for being a pretty boy, but in my estimation he's also a very good actor. If Craig can be Bond, Di Caprio can be Fleming...

Look at it as a karmic correction: rough boy Craig plays "very good-looking" secret agent 007...pretty boy Di Caprio plays non-pretty boy, prematurely-aged Fleming, bringing balance to the Bond Force^TM...

)

Barbel

Loeffelholz wrote:

Look at it as a karmic correction: rough boy Craig plays "very good-looking" secret agent 007...pretty boy Di Caprio plays non-pretty boy, prematurely-aged Fleming, bringing balance to the Bond Force^TM...

)

So Leo would be The Chosen One? Have his mitochondrions been checked?

Golrush007

scaramanga1 wrote:

It wouldn't surprise me -after all he did don the Connery Goldfinger three piece suit and drive a DB5 in Catch Me if You Can.

Also, in that film when he is trying on the suit, the attendant calls him "Mr Fleming". A foreshadowing, perhaps? :v

7289

If Lenny is truly a Fleming fan that is a good thing!

Red Indian

From the LA Times:

No stranger to biopics, Leonardo DiCaprio may be in line to portray another 20th-century figure in Fleming, a film chronicling the life of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Outgoing LA Times columnist Jay Fernandez reports today that DiCaprio's Appian Way shingle has signed on to produce Damian Stevenson's script, which the writer insists is "the real James Bond. ... In England, Ian Fleming's exploits are much better well known. Talking to people out here, no one had any idea that M was based on a real person, Miss Moneypenny was based on a real person." As such, Fernandez notes that Stevenson spent months convincing his buyers at Warner Bros. about the script's "historical accuracy" — which refers to his own Naval intelligence background that informed the Bond character.