Andy Garcia has coaxed Hollywood royalty, Anthony Hopkins and Annette Bening, to co-star with him in “Hemingway and Fuentes,” which Garcia will also direct.

Variety reports that Garcia, along with Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter, Hilary Hemingway, penned the script, which centers on the twenty years or so that Hemingway spent in Cuba fishing with long-time friend, Gregorio Fuentes (to be played by Garcia).  It was during that time that he fell in love with the beautiful Italian girl who inspired him to write “The Old Man and the Sea.”

Garcia will produce and Sobini Films’ Mark Amin will exec produce.  And now that Hopkins has agreed to do the film after he completes “Thor,” Garcia feels he has enough to entice some financiers.

“Anthony is one of the greatest actors, and I’d heard he’d been interested in playing the character in the past,” Garcia said. “I’m blessed that he responded. The marketplace is ever changing in the film world, so you’re trolling many baits, waiting to see where the strikes are. Officially, we are going out with the movie and starting conversations with all foreign distributors. I’ve done about six movies that way, and sold domestic later. When I worked with Francis Coppola on `The Godfather 3,’ he said the way you make a movie is, you begin. We’ve begun.”