Ernest Hemingway biopic in the works

By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A.E. Hotchner's best-selling biography "Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir" has been optioned for adaptation to the big screen.

The Gotham Group, a management and production company, and producer Kevin Fortuna have secured rights to Hotchner's New York Times best-seller. The book explores the last 14 years of the Nobel Prize-winning author's life, during which he was close friends with Hotchner, now 88.

"It is rare that we have such intimate, truthful knowledge about the life and, ultimately, demise of a true American icon," said Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, of Gotham Group, who will produce the film with Peter McHugh. "Hotchner's stories hold a mythical value to those of us who so respect the author Hemingway but know little about the man."

Richard Attenborough's 1996 feature "In Love and War," starring Chris O'Donnell, covered Hemingway's years as a young ambulance driver in Italy during World War I.

Hotchner scripted the 1962 film "Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man," based on the author's stories. Hemingway had shot himself to death the previous year.

Fortuna, former president and CEO of Quigo Technologies, which he sold to Time Warner for nearly $400 million (282 million pounds), also is developing a documentary about Hotchner through his Dedalus Enterprises.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter