Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio may portray Ian Fleming

The actor's company will produce a film about the creator of James Bond.

By Jay A. Fernandez, Special to The Times

Leonardo DiCaprio may one day be able to add Ian Fleming to the list of real historical
figures that he's impersonated on screen.

The Oscar-nominated actor's Appian Way company recently came on as producer of

"Fleming," an original screenplay written by Damian Stevenson about the life of the
British author and journalist who created James Bond.

"It's going to be very different from the Bond films," says producer Andrew Lazar
("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Get Smart"), who first championed the project.
"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."

In fall 2005, just before the lucrative Bond franchise rebooted with Daniel Craig,
Stevenson made his first script sale to Warner Bros. He then spent months mollifying
the WB legal department about the historical accuracy of the Fleming story and worked
through dozens of drafts with Lazar.

"It's the real James Bond," says the 35-year-old Stevenson, who previously worked as a
development executive at Kopelson Entertainment and DreamWorks. "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."

The London native scoured the underground stacks of the University of Oxford's
centuries-old Bodleian Library for out-of-print Fleming biographies.

His latest version of the screenplay begins on the eve of Fleming's Jamaica wedding in
1952, just before his first Bond novel, "Casino Royale," was published (a wedding
present to his new wife).

It then flashes back to Fleming's years as a Reuters journalist stationed in Moscow and
then a Commander of Naval Intelligence (MI6 code name "17F") during World War II
who devised innovative spying plots.

Fleming later drew from his own playboy life and his espionage contemporaries' to
invent one of literature and film's most enduring characters.
During the writers' strike, DiCaprio showed interest in Fleming and his world, but he's
looking to take the script in a different direction with a new writer.

The next Bond film, titled "Quantum of Solace" after a Fleming short story, will be
released by MGM on Nov. 7.

Fade to black

"Fade to black." For screenwriters, finally typing those words triggers the kind of
magnificent satisfaction marathon runners feel when they break the tape.

In this case, it also comes with a twinge of sadness.

After 88 columns, Scriptland is moving off the Times stage. It's been massively
satisfying to have so many people read and respond to the column (special mention goes
to writer-director Scott Coffey for early on bemoaning the "turgid snark" of my prose).

But more importantly, readers seemed to rediscover the obvious: that the lives, work
and minds of this town's writers are endlessly rich and insightful.

If there's a legacy here, I hope it's theirs -- that they receive due respect for being the
miraculous cultivators not just of their own imaginations, but of ours as well.

Over the last 21 months, I've had the good fortune to speak with a lot of smart, savvy
people in the TV and film world -- agents, managers, producers, executives and,
especially, screenwriters.

Many shared hard-won wisdom about a profession that can often be more frustrating
than fulfilling.

One of these was Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects"), a real
student of the game who once offhandedly provided the most succinct explanation for
the gummed-up, 10th-circle-of-hell runaround of the film business that I've ever heard.
Here it is, for your morbid pleasure:

"Scripts don't get movies made, directors do," McQuarrie e-mailed. "(You can argue that
actors do, but the first question the actor asks is 'who is directing?') The list of directors
that supply the necessary confidence is exceedingly small. So even if directors were
choosing projects based solely on the quality of the writing (which is not always the
case, obviously) a writer's chances are slim.

"Next, is your spec script based on a bestseller, a comic book, a graphic novel? Is an
actor attached? What makes it worth investing tens or even hundreds of millions of
dollars? If your answer is story, you should be writing books.

"So what about the scripts written for a studio? The purpose of studio development is
getting the script to a place where it is suitable to attract a director from the
aforementioned short list. The common belief is that directors will only read a script
once and will be less likely to accept a script some other director has passed on. Thus,
no one wants to show the script to a director until it's ready to make. And, as we've
established, a script isn't ready to make until a director says it is.

"Welcome to turnaround."

A ban on ...

On my way out the door (I've taken a job as a film reporter for the Hollywood
Reporter), I'd like to call an unsolicited moratorium on some industry tropes that have
grown mealy and stale.

Vampires. There is no permutation left to explore -- novelists, screenwriters and comic

book artists have sucked all the blood out of this particular archetype.

"But at the end of the day . . ." Why do so many people in the film industry use this
phrase? What does it even mean, at the end of the day?

The mild-mannered husband is actually an international spy/assassin/superhero! This

perpetual wish fulfillment from male screenwriters that we are all really masked crime
fighters, secret agents and hired killers is trite and childish. But since an accurate
portrayal would encompass nothing but narcotized resentment , porn addiction and
couples counseling, maybe it's the only option.

"The city is a character." Right. Meaning the actual characters you created are thin
enough to pick locks. It's not just screenwriters who abuse this one. All you junior
studio executives offering input during notes meetings have to come up with something
more inventive than, "Can you make Miami more of a character?" Unless, of course,
there's an actual character named Miami.

"High-concept." This has always been a self-aggrandizing misnomer that flatters a

creative team and audience that know better. Let's be accurate: These screenplays
should be called "concept-only."

Bloggers claiming to be real journalists. If this comment offends you, then you're
precisely who I'm talking about. Having a megaphone in your hand doesn't make you a
director. Any more than having a laptop and Final Draft makes you a screenwriter.

"It's really a western." People use this to shorthand a film's plot structure and to lend the
story some mythological-nostalgic weight. But, c'mon. Even westerns aren't westerns
anymore.

"The next 'Rosemary's Baby.' " Studios and producers still in search of a horror
blockbuster that's "supernatural with a thriller element, but really scary, like 'Rosemary's
Baby,' " need to give up (especially those who say this despite having never actually
seen the movie).

Come to think of it, let's ban encouraging or describing any creative endeavor as "the
next . . ." How about we all agree to aim instead for "the new?"
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/la-et-scriptland14-2008may14,0,7990737.story
****

Ian Fleming Portrayed By Leonardo DiCaprio?

Actor's film company comes on board as producer of 'Fleming' screenplay

Written by Devin Zydel on 13 May, 2008

Leonardo DiCaprio as Ian Fleming?

It may not be the first name that comes to mind when thinking of actors who could
portray the James Bond creator, but new details regarding an original screenplay entitled
‘Fleming’ could change that. CBn first reported on the script in October 2005.

The Los Angeles Times reports that DiCaprio’s Appian Way film company recently
came on as a producer of ‘Fleming’, an original screenplay by Damian Stevenson that
centers on the life of the famous 007 author.

‘It’s going to be very different from the Bond films,’ said producer Andrew Lazar, who
was an early supporter of the project. ‘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.’

Stevenson first made his sale of the ‘Fleming’ script to Warner Bros in fall 2005, just
before Daniel Craig was named the sixth official Bond actor. Several drafts with
assistance from Lazar then followed.

‘It’s the real James Bond,’ said Stevenson. ‘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.’

The latest version of the ‘Fleming’ script begins on the eve of Fleming’s wedding and
just before the author’s debut Bond adventure, Casino Royale was published.

The story also features flashbacks to Fleming’s years as a journalist and then his time as
a naval intelligence officer during World War II.

DiCaprio is reportedly looking to take the script in a different direction with a new
writer.

Stay tuned to the CommanderBond.net main page as further details regarding this Ian
Fleming biopic are revealed.

http://commanderbond.net/article/5143

***
What do you think? I guess, it would be interesting to see Leo playing this man....but
I'm not sure if he is the right person for this role.
I mean, Fleming is very British. At least I guess so?!? But maybe not so....I don't really
know, I admit. And Leo is....let's say 50% American and 50% cosmopolitan ;-) . But
maybe that doesn't matter at all for this role...I don't know. I'm just curious what other
Leo fans think about it :-) .