'James Bond' Creator Ian Fleming To Get A Bio-Pic

Duncan Jones To Tell The Story Of Ian Fleming!
Published at: May 20, 2012 10:18:23 AM CDT



Nordling here.

Ian Fleming's life was at least as interesting as his fictional creation, James Bond. Fleming did a little bit of espionage of his own during World War II; he was head of a group of commandos that were specialist intelligence soldiers that made it their business to go after enemy documents, and later, one of the advisers to a special military task force called T-Force that went after specific targets as the war was winding down. Fleming used those experiences in the creation of his iconic character. There's even a television movie about those years called SPYMAKER, and Jason Connery starred as Ian Fleming, a role that he was born to play, so to speak.

Now, according to Empire, we will see those intriguing stories on the big screen. Duncan Jones, director of the impressive MOON and the time-twisting SOURCE CODE, will make this his third film, with producers Stuart Fenegan, Oliver Simon, and Daniel Baur. As Jones himself says,“Fleming lived through one of the most perilous periods in world history, in a position that allowed him a unique vantage point of all the players, all the stakes. He witnessed true heroism first-hand. And he saw the evil men could do. Then, when the war ended, he went off to write fiction. The essential question for me is: where did Ian Fleming end and Bond begin?”

Indeed. Jones is a terrific choice for this project - it will show his range as a filmmaker and I'm especially curious to see how he directs what will likely be a fairly sweeping story with a huge cast of characters. The film will be based on the book IAN FLEMING: THE MAN BEHIND JAMES BOND by Andrew Lycett.

So the big question is who do we cast as Ian Fleming? I'd imagine that all the usual suspects will make their way through casting - Michael Fassbender or Clive Owen perhaps? My personal pick would be, of course, Benedict Cumberbatch. Perhaps James MacAvoy, or maybe Ben Whishaw (with a decent haircut). Sometimes true stories are more interesting than the fictions they inspire, and I'm sure Duncan Jones will find that sweet spot between the two for this project.

Nordling, out. Follow me on Twitter!

Dominic Cooper to Play James Bond Creator Ian Fleming
Posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2013 by Angie Han



The $1 billion worldwide box office take for Skyfall is proof positive that affection for James Bond is alive and well. It only makes sense, then, that there are now plans in place to highlight the man who invented him. Dominic Cooper has signed on to play Bond author Ian Fleming in a four-episode British miniseries tentatively titled Fleming. He’s joined by Annabelle Wallis, who’ll play rumored Bond Girl inspiration Muriel Wright.

While some authors are more adventurous on the page than in real life, Fleming was by most accounts the basis for his famed creation. Many of Bond’s daring escapades were inspired by Fleming’s own experiences in intelligence. And also like Bond, Fleming was notorious for boozing and womanizing. Read more after the jump.

Variety got the scoop on Cooper’s casting. Sky Atlantic has just given the green light to the series, and production is expected to get underway in the UK and Budapest in the coming months. BBC America will co-produce. The goal is to get Fleming on the air (at least in the UK) by the end of this year. According to Deadline, the series will follow Fleming’s early life in war-torn London.

Although Fleming is best remembered for his books, his life story would’ve been an interesting one even without them. Born into a wealthy, well connected family, Fleming worked in journalism and finance as a young man before he was recruited for the Royal Navy at the start of World War II. He had a successful career in the intelligence division, forming his own unit of commandos. He returned to journalism once the war was over, and then a few years later began work on the first Bond novel, Casino Royale.

Wright met Fleming in the ’30s, and the two began a passionate affair that lasted nine years. Though he had been unable to commit to a monogamous relationship with her, he was reportedly torn with grief and guilt after her death in a London air raid in 1944. She has been called the archetypal Bond Girl, though of course Fleming would go on to have many more romances after her.

Sky Atlantic’s Fleming is only one of several recent attempts to get the writer’s tale to the screen. As of last year, Duncan Jones was attached to direct a feature, also titled Fleming, based on a biography by Andrew Lycett. A few years before that, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way was developing another incarnation. Probably the most recent portrayal of Fleming was James D’Arcy’s in 2011′s Age of Heroes, which was about Fleming’s 30 Commando unit. Fleming has also previously been played by Jason Connery (Sean’s son) and Charles Dance in TV movies.

Cooper was last seen in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and will next star with Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace in Niels Arden Oplev’s Dead Man Down. A couple of months ago, he joined Aaron Paul in Need for Speed, based on the video game franchise. Wallis has appeared in Pan Am and The Tudors. She recently wrapped the BBC series Peaky Blinders, co-starring Cillian Murphy.

James Stocks wrote: It's nice to see that it's not going to be more of a critical piece on Fleming's character and politics like a lot of leftist journalists love to bring up to trash him and his books, so of course they'll slam this mini-series for glamorizing Fleming.

Apologist Puncher wrote:

James Stocks wrote: It's nice to see that it's not going to be more of a critical piece on Fleming's character and politics like a lot of leftist journalists love to bring up to trash him and his books, so of course they'll slam this mini-series for glamorizing Fleming.

If he was made by HollyWeird, that is EXACTLY what you'd get.

When a guy like Kelsey Grammar doesn't even get NOMINATED for an Emmy for his show 'Boss' because he's an unapologetic Republican, you KNOW something's wrong.

thecolorsblend wrote:Hadn't heard that but it's not surprising. Don't want to get too partisan but at the same time I hope the next person who claims there is no bias among the left in general and Hollyweird in particular gets struck by lightning.

Kelsey Grammer Says Emmy Awards Snubbed Him Because He's Republican

Kelsey Grammer has an interesting theory for why he wasn't nominated for an Emmy this year. During his appearance on "The Tonight Show," the actor told Jay Leno he was baffled his performance on "Boss" didn't make the cut.

When pressed by Leno to offer a possible explanation, Grammer floated the fact that he's one of Hollywood's few "declared, out of the closet Republicans."

The actor described a somewhat detailed scenario wherein an Emmy voter relied on politics in making their selection (rather than a critical attention to the potential nominees), then sarcastically said he doesn't "believe that's possible." (Video of his appearance is available above.)

The "Frasier" star also noted that his last Emmy win came before he became a public conservative, though he may have forgotten about his 2006 win for voice-over work on "The Simpsons." Grammer has long been known as a conservative, having endorsed Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential bid and supported George Bush in 2001.

Grammer has won a total of five primetime Emmy awards (four times for "Frasier"). This year, he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama for "Boss."

That he was not nominated for an Emmy does not necessarily mean he was snubbed. The series, which is on Starz, was described as "almost good" by the New York Times and has enjoyed generally favorable but not amazing reviews (the series currently sits at 78% on MetaCritic).