October 06, 2005
Hemingway Film to Be Made in Cuba
New Zealand director Roger Donaldson is to make a movie about renowned U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway, who will be played by British actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, according to the Associated Press.
In the capital, Wellington, to promote another movie - 'The World's Fastest Indian' - starring Hopkins which premieres next week, Donaldson said Hopkins will play Hemingway in the film, titled 'Papa'.
"It's a pretty ambitious movie for what it is... Hemingway is a great writer and a great character. If anybody can play Hemingway Tony Hopkins can," Donaldson told the Dominion Post newspaper in Tuesday editions.
He said the movie will be based on Hemingway's encounter with Denne Bart Petitclerc, America's youngest war correspondent in the Korean War, who was inspired by how Hemingway reported on the Spanish Civil War.
Hemingway, then living in Havana, Cuba, received " a fan letter" from Bart Petitclerc and surprised the reporter by asking to meet him.
"Hemingway invited him to Havana for some weekends and the movie is really about what happens when he goes there," Donaldson told the newspaper. "it' a thriller, it's a love story, it's Hemingway as he falls apart and is suicidal. This guy was a witness to it all."
In researching the film, Donaldson visited Heminway's Havana home and met Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Like 'The World's Fastest Indian', the movie 'Papa' will be an independent film, Donaldson said. He is still working on secure finance.
Hemingway first visited Bimini in 1935 and won his first fishing competition on Bahamian soil that year.
Posted by admin at October 6, 2005 09:59 AM | TrackBack