Everyone’s favorite casting rumor target, James McAvoy.

Empireonline is reporting, via Pajiba blog, that James McAvoy is “attached” to a proposed film about Ian Fleming, the writer who created James Bond. There are no additional details…or, to be honest, anything to make us believe that this is anything more than a rumor. But it’s kind of a fun rumor, because McAvoy’s name pops up a lot with casting rumors and this is actually a plausible role for him, because Fleming was from a Scottish family (although born in London), and McAvoy is Scottish. That’s enough, isn’t it?

Fleming served in the Navy during World War II, working in intelligence. One book I read about spies during World War II described Fleming as not having good spy potential because he had an overactive imagination; rather than just focusing on his mission and executing each step, he tended to let his mind leap ahead, picturing all kinds of scenarios and thus not being able to really stay in the moment. I don’t know if this is an accurate portrayal of him, but that’s what I read, folks.

Fleming may not have been a top spy himself, but of course he created one of the best, becoming very rich in the process. He moved to a Jamaican island (Goldeneye) and lived the lush life of a playboy, the kind of life one might imagine the Roger Moore version of James Bond might have lived in retirement (not the kind the Daniel Craig version would live–his James Bond, if retired, would probably drink himself to death in misery in a tiny rented room in a bad part of Rome or something like that).

And that’s all I really know about Fleming. This biopic, if it’s made, is supposed to be based on the recent biography of Fleming by Andrew Lycett. I tried to read that when it came out but the library didn’t have it yet, so I settled for Lycett’s biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (which, while a fine enough read, left me with a dislike of Doyle–though not of Sherlock Holmes).

So is this all real or not? Like I said, it’s certainly not implausible, but there are very few details (producer? director? screenwriter). Empire is legit but this is a bit shaky. Oh well. If it turns out to be wrong, it didn’t hurt anyone, if it turns out to be right, well, Empire, Pajiba, and I are all geniuses.

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