Andy Garcia’s long-gestating project, Heminway and Fuentes, about Ernest Hemingway and his best friend, Gergorio Fuentes, is gearing up, with the news that Anthony Hopkins has come on board to play the legendary author.
As well as co-writing (alongside Ernest’s granddaughter, Hilary Hemingway), producing and directing the the film, Garcia will also play Fuentes.
The movie will tell the story of the time Hemingway spent fishing with Fuentes in Cuba, where he fell in love with a beautiful Italian woman, who inspired him to write The Old Man and the Sea. Also joining the cast is Annette Bening, who will play the author’s third wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway.
Apparently the project has been gathering momentum for Garcia since the late-70s, when his love of fishing brought him into contact with some of the angler who used to gets their rods out alongside Ernest Hemingway in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. He nearly made the film in 2005, but went off to direct The Lost City instead, during which time he ended up collaborating with Hilary Hemingway on a new version of the script.
Hopkins has promised to make the movie after he finishes work on Thor, with Garcia hoping to get the money together to start shooting next summer.