Dominic Cooper is a rising English actor with a smouldering look and legitimate acting chops, which could make him a good replacement for James Bond whenever Daniel Craig drops out of the role. If so, Cooper would be kind of repeating himself, as the actor is playing Ian Fleming, the famed author of the 007 series, in the BBC miniseries Fleming.
Subtitled The Man Who Would Be Bond, the first trailer showcases Cooper in a lot of scenarios that we normally accustom to James Bond: bedding beautiful women, using nifty gadgets, taking on bad guys and uttering cheesy one-liners with confidence. As the promo suggests, Fleming himself was very close to the DNA of the character who would eventually bring him eternal fame. Like the superspy, Fleming was also a bit of an action hero, thanks to his time as a commander in the Royal Navy and as a naval intelligence officer during World War II.
Judging by the footage that we see in this first trailer, the miniseries will likely showcase some of the true events that inspired the stories and characters in Fleming’s books. After all, one of the operations that Fleming planned during the War was called Goldeneye, later the title of the 17th Bond film and the name of the author’s home where he wrote many of his spy capers.
It should be noted that Cooper is not the first actor to play the author on screen. In an intriguing feat of casting, Sean Connery’s son, Jason, starred as the James Bond novelist in the TV movie Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming in the early 1990s. With the recent success of Skyfall and another two years until the 24th Bond installment, Fleming looks like it could be more than enough to hold aficionados over until then. It appears to be an insightful biopic that will also provide some of the action and suspense that made Fleming’s bestsellers so sublime.
Fleming is a four-part miniseries, airing on BBC America beginning on January 29. Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think.
