Tradecraft: Fleming Biopic Moves Forward

The Hollywood Reporter today reports that writer John Orloff has signed on to write the screenplay for Fleming, the Ian Fleming biopic in development at Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way production company for Warner Bros. The project originated at Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance, and they are still involved as well. Mad Chance first announced Fleming in the trades with a press release carefully timed to coincide with the announcement of Daniel Craig as the new James Bond in 2005. The last draft was penned by Damian Stevenson, who seemed to be taking the same approach as the 90s TV movies Goldeneye and Spymaker: The Life of Ian Fleming: eschewing most true details of the author's life and instead turning the movie into a thinly veiled James Bond story. Hopefully Orloff will approach things differently, since the true story of the life of Bond's creator is incredibly rich and has a lot to offer without embellishment! Orloff wrote the Daniel Pearl biopic A Mighty Heart in 2007, and previously worked on the stellar HBO war series Band of Brothers.