Andy Garcia is prepping Hemingway and Fuentes: a drama about the two decades in Cuba that culminated in Ernest Hemingway's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1952 novel The Old Man and The Sea, the last of his works to be published during his lifetime.

Garcia has written the film in cahoots with Hemingway's granddaughter Hilary, and will direct providing he can get the funding together: "Francis Coppola said to me, 'the way you make a movie is, you begin'. We've begun." He'll also star as the titular Gregoria Fuentes: Hemingway's closest friend. The project has been gestating since the 70s, when keen offshore fisherman Garcia began coming into regular contact with anglers who had chased the giant marlin with Hemingway in the 40s and 50s.

Anthony Hopkins has agreed to star as Hemingway; a role he's coveted for a while, and one to add to his list of true-lives alongside Richard Nixon and Pablo Picasso. Annette Benning has also committed to co-star as Hemingway's third wife, Mary Welsh Hemingway.

With a heavyweight cast, a script in place, and the support of the Hemingway estate, there's no reason to think that Garcia will have any difficulty getting this up and running. All being well, it'll be Hopkins' immediate next role, following his turn as Odin in the mighty Thor.