McAvoy to beat DiCaprio to the martini as IAN FLEMING?

Word comes from Pajiba tonight that James McAvoy is "attached" to play Ian Flemingin a $40 million biopic of the James Bond creator which is being produced by Palmstar Entertainment and Animus Films. The announcement is interesting to us, of course, but probably not to the level it is interesting to Leonardo DiCaprio whose production company (with the backing of Warner Bros.) made plans 19 months ago to make a Fleming biopic which DiCaprio himself would star in. The project has since gone through at least one re-write, and in truth when someone like DiCaprio is attached, these things can be in development hell for years. Now with McAvoy's movie looking like it's going ahead, the hand is forced to DiCaprio who will now have to decide whether he really does have the desire to do Fleming because being late out of the gate in the Hollywood biopic game is sudden death. TheCapote/Infamous battle was proof enough of that. McAvoy's movie will be based on the book Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond by Andrew Lycett, and as adapted for the screen by unknown writer Matt Brown. The biopic carries the uninspiring working title of Ian Fleming, and is currently out to directors...

Years before creating Bond, Fleming struggled and floundered under the shadow of his family name (his father was a member of Parliament, and his siblings were also well-known, as well, including Peter €” a travel writer). Likable but lost, Fleming was little but an aimless playboy, until his experiences in World War 2 changed his life, and it was those autobiographical experiences during war time that inspired James Bond, who was based €” in part €” on Fleming.

So we'll be witness to the real life origins of his outlandish characters Dr. No, Goldfinger and Blofeld - and Fleming's years in the Royal Navy Intelligence, before retiring to his Goldeneye home in Jamaica where he would be married and pen Casino Royale, creating the legend that is James Bond, before passing away prematurely at the age of 56.

My take is that I prefer DiCaprio as Fleming and I've yet really to warm to the dry acting skills of James McAvoy, and he doesn't instantly strike me as the playboy, good-life type but I guess this movie is centered on Fleming's earlier days during his WWII missions, so they'll be little time here for the martini's and the ladies. If anything, it'll be the Archie Hicox kind of WWII espionage thriller. Where Eagles Dare type. Now that sounds cool.