Anthony Hopkins is about to start growing a paunch and snowy white beard. EW has confirmed that the Silence of the Lambs star will play Ernest Hemingway in an indie titled Hemingway & Fuentes, to be produced and directed by Andy Garcia. The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog first reported that the actor was loosely attached to the project.
Garcia, who also co-wrote the script with Hemingway’s niece, author Hilary Hemingway, will costar in the film as well, playing the real life fishing-boat captain Gregorio Fuentes, who befriended Papa Hemingway in the last decade of the alpha-male writer’s life. Fuentes was said to be the model for one of Hemingway’s most enduring literary creations: the grizzled fisherman Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952.
Garcia’s agent Clifford Stevens says that the project is now out to financiers and that it is a longtime “labor of love” for Garcia. “He’s been talking about it with me for 15 or 20 years,” says Stevens. Since Garcia was born in Cuba and considering the political situation in Fidel Castro’s island nation, Stevens considers it highly unlikely that the film will be shot there. Stevens added that Annette Benning could also join the film as Hemingway’s wife Mary Welsh, although that offer is still in the discussions phase.
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This one is going to stink.
Mix the Hopkins ‘Picasso’ movie with the Garcia ‘Lorca’ movie, and presto! This clunker.
Interesting. I could have sworn Hopkins was retired, but good luck to this project.
Anthony is way too british to play Papa. Vince Vaughn would have been purrfect!
It’s been a while since Hopkins was up for an Oscar, looks like it might be his time once again.
Vince Vaughn? Huh???????
Hopkins is brilliant and can absolutely play Hemingway.
I think Anthony Hopkins will be perfect as Hemingway. It is great that Andy has co-written the script, will star and direct this movie. Andy is so talented. I bet that he would also compose music for this movie. I am so excited!!!