After making one of the finest writing and directorial debuts in recent years with Moon, Duncan Jones followed it up with one of last year’s best films, Source Code, and now it looks like he’s setting up what’s sure to be a brilliant third film, with an eye to go into production before year’s end.

(And having just had the first teaser trailer for Skyfall debut yesterday morning, it only seems right to point you in that direction now.)

A fansite of Jones’, Man Made Movies, has a press release coming out of Cannes that Jones will be taking on a biopic of the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming, whose own life formed some of the basis for the inspiration creating the world’s most famous spy.

Based on Andrew Lycett’s biography, Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, the script is penned by Matt Brown, with the full approval of the Ian Fleming Estate.

K5 Film (Gaspar Noé’s upcoming The Golden Suicides) are producing alongside PalmStar Media (Celeste and Jesse Forever), Jim Young’s Animus Films (The Words) and Jones’ own Liberty Films.

Jones has shown he is an incredibly talented, and very promising, young director in the sci-fi genre, and I can’t wait to see him switch gears a little for what’s being described as a period action film. Source Code had plenty of action to show he has the skills to do it, and a biopic of Fleming will surely have a large built-in audience to create even further anticipation around the project.

Jones is said to be getting underway with casting already, so with a bit of luck, we’ll have more news to bring you about the film soon. Sounds awesome to us. For now, here’s the press release for your perusal.

Duncan Jones and K5 Set Crosshairs On Ian Fleming

CANNES, FRANCE. Duncan Jones, the BAFTA Award-winning British director of Moon and international box office hit Source Code, will direct the action-packed story of one of Britain’s most celebrated yet mysterious legends – James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Before Ian Fleming became the globally renowned best-selling author, his own life was no less exciting than that of the hero he created. Fleming travelled the world and masterminded real life top-secret operations, inspiring him to create James Bond. Duncan Jones’ take will explore and tie together those events in the author’s life that gave birth to Britain’s greatest superspy.

Duncan Jones remarked – “Fleming lived through one of the most perilous periods in world history, in a position that allowed him a unique vantage point of all the players, all the stakes.  He witnesses true heroism first-hand.  And he saw the evil men could do.  Then, when the war ended, he went off to write fiction. The essential question for me is; where did Ian Fleming end and Bond begin?”

K5 Film (Oliver Simon and Daniel Baur), PalmStar Media Capital’s Kevin Frakes and Liberty Films’ Stuart Fenegan will produce the film in association with Jim Young and Robert Laycock of the Ian Fleming Estate.  K5 International will handle worldwide rights.

Jones is currently in the process of casting the film, which is based on the authoritative biography “Ian Fleming, The Man Behind James Bond” by Andrew Lycett, and is anticipated to go into production later this year.  It is the only film to be given the full support of The Ian Fleming Estate.

Kevin Frakes says, “Fleming is a larger than life character and it’s fantastic to be bringing him to the big screen with Duncan.”

“Duncan is one of the hottest directors currently working in film and everyone has been waiting to see what he would do next,” say K5’s Co-Founding Partners Oliver Simon and Daniel Baur.

Stuart Fenegan commented, “The opportunity to make a period action film about the life of Fleming and origins of Bond – a hero we all grew up idolising – is too great for Duncan and me to resist.”

 

Source: via The Playlist.