Actor Ron Perlman, best known for his role as Hellboy, will portray Ernest Hemingway in a biopic about the writer's final years. He will also co-direct the project, which promises to show not only the famous places associated with Hemingway but also a story of surveillance, paranoia, and political intrigue, according to infohub.kz.
The biopic will focus on the last two years of Hemingway's life, which he spent in Cuba. The plot will be based on a story once shared with the actor by writer Enrique Cirules, who died about ten years ago.
"Enrique told me a story about how Hemingway got caught up in a whirlwind of events, and then added political and psychological factors, paranoia that made him think he was being watched by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. At the time, everyone thought it was madness, but it turned out to be true," Ron said.
Perlman won't limit himself to the lead role. He will also co-direct the film with Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Beristain. Production will be handled by Asylm, a company co-founded by the actor himself. According to him, the team spent about ten years preparing for the shoot and now plans to start work soon.
According to Perlman, Hemingway's heirs supported the project and offered to film at the writer's former home, Finca Vigía, which now operates as a museum. The team also hopes to shoot at the writer's favorite establishments — the bars La Bodeguita del Medio and El Floridita (Cuba) — as well as on his famous boat, Pilar.
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous American writers of the 20th century, author of the novels For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms. He lived a very vibrant and eventful life, truly worthy of a biopic. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver in Italy, and during World War II, he worked as a war correspondent. He spent most of his life in Cuba and in his final years suspected that the FBI was watching him. It later emerged that the bureau did indeed have a file on him. In 1954, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and in 1961, he took his own life at the age of 61.
Earlier, Kursiv LifeStyle wrote that Paul McCartney was outraged that he was again made to seem lesser than John Lennon in a biopic about The Beatles.