Bafta-winning Moon director Duncan Jones is taking on the man behind James Bond: spy, journalist and 007-creator Ian Fleming. Yes, it’s the Moon-maker on the Moonraker-maker, with the news that Jones’s third film as director – with his Liberty Films partner, producer Stuart Fenegan – will focus on the events in Fleming’s own life that inspired his books.  

Though he became famous as the author of twelve Bond novels and two collections of 007 short stories, Fleming was himself a man of considerable mystery, co-ordinating real-life espionage in World War II and using his experiences as fuel for his iconic literary creation. 

“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,” says Jones. “He witnessed 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?” 

The screenplay is based on Andrew Lycett’s biography Ian Fleming, The Man Behind James Bond. Though several TV films have been made about the author, this is the first feature to have the cooperation of the Ian Fleming Estate.

Given that Jones proved a dab hand with deductive trickery and action in Source Code, we are excited to see what he can do with this material: sex, violence, betrayal and Trilbys – it’s got the lot. 

Fenegan says, “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.” 

Oliver Simon and Daniel Baur of K5 Film and PalmStar Media Capital’s Kevin Frakes will produce alongside Fenegan, with shooting expected to start later this year.

The film is currently nameless, but we will be having serious words if the working title, at least, isn't A View To A Quill.