What a Surprise -- There's News of Another Hemingway Feature

As soon as the name of an old icon enters the wind, it's only a matter of time before another Hollywood group gets a whiff and starts up a competing feature, or mind-melds with an international subconsciousness and starts one up unknowingly. Just last month, word hit that Ernest Hemingway was getting a biopic, and now THR's Risky Biz Blog says another is on the way, and they already have a star in mind.

It appears that Andy Garcia is cooking up a feature called Hemingway & Fuentes that he'll write and direct, and Anthony Hopkins is tentatively attached to star as Papa. Garcia hopes to grab Fuentes, and Annette Bening might sign on to play Mary Welsh, Ernest's final wife. Hilary Hemingway, niece of Ernest, is teaming up with Garcia to write the script, which will revolve around Hemingway and his friend, Gregorio Fuentes, captain of the writer's beloved fishing boat, Pilar. But Fuentes is also a little something more than that -- some rumors say that he's the man who inspired The Old Man and the Sea.

Like the other project, this feature will focus on Papa's later life, but Garcia says it will be an historical drama, rather than a biopic, delving into Hemingway's psyche, his relationship with Fuentes, and his deep love of fishing. I'm happy to see so much attention being paid to the writer, but it's an incredible shame that it's all being focused on his struggles with depression and subsequent suicide. There are a million other stories to be told -- from his writing adventures overseas, stateside, and in Canada, to his crazy collection of wives, the war, how he was raised (which gives a lot of insight into his writing), and his times in places like Key West.

At least it will be interesting to see how Hemingway's male friendships evolve into different features.