James McAvoy is the lead in what will be the first feature film about journalist/writer Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. According to Moviehole, moviemakers once had their eye on Leonardo DiCaprio to star, but now McAvoy has been tipped to play Fleming in the independently financed film based on biographer Andrew Lycett’s book ‘Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond.’

The picture has a budget of around $40 million and currently bears the working title ‘Ian Fleming.’ It will focus on the years during which the author acquired inspiration for his classic Bond character.

Fleming’s youth is said to have been spent as an aimless playboy but his path took a turn toward purpose when he lived through World War II. Fleming was first a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve lieutenant and later promoted to Lieutenant Commander, before finally reaching the rank of Commander. The Bond character is, in part, based on Fleming himself.

The author created Bond in 1952 while on holiday at his Jamaican estate, GoldenEye. The SIS Agent was named after an American ornithologist and author of the field guide book ‘Birds of the West Indies.’ Fleming was a keen birdwatcher and once told Reader’s Digest “I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, ‘James Bond’ was much better than something more interesting, like ‘Peregrine Carruthers.’ Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure — an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department.”

Currently James McAvoy is busy working on a few movies, leaving the question of when he will have time to star in the high priority project up in the air. At the moment he is wrapping up filming on ‘The Conspirator’ and has both ‘I’m with Cancer’ and ‘Wanted 2′ in the works.

(Photo by PR Photos)

Story provided by the Dish Information Corporation