-

It’s been a fair while since Anthony Hopkins has had the chance to stretch his legs within a role, and I can think of no better opportunity for him to remind people what a fine actor he is than by stepping into the shoes of Ernest Hemingway.

That’s exactly what he’ll be doing for Andy Garcia (yes, The Godfather Part III‘s Andy Garcia) in Hemingway & Fuentes, a biopic drama that will focus on “the two decades that Hemingway spent in Cuba fishing with his best friend Gregorio Fuentes, where he fell in love with the beautiful Italian girl who inspired him to write ‘The Old Man and the Sea.’”

Garcia himself will be playing Fuentes, with Annette Bening as Hemingway’s wife, Mary.

It seems that the actor/director has had an interesting connection with the material, dating back to the 1970s:

“I was specifically most interested in Hemingway’s connection to Cuba, where he spent the last 20 years of his life, and his relationship with his last captain, Gregorio,” Garcia said. “As an avid fisherman, I got to know older Cuban fisherman who knew Gregorio from the fishing culture of the 40s and 50s, and who would compete in tournaments outside the city of Havana, which was really the beginning of competitive fishing.”

In case you’re unfamiliar, those last 20 years of Hemingway’s life didn’t end so well. Garcia worked out the script with Hilary Hemingway, Ernest’s granddaughter. He’ll shoot the film next summer, right after he’s done with Thor.

Who would have guessed that Garcia’s life has been so intricately interwoven with Hemingway’s? I’m pretty confident that he’ll be reverent to the source material, and I’m excited to see how this pans out.