Steve Martin has taken a leading role in Ang Lee’s next, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Deadline has the news, reporting that Martin will join Garrett Hedlund and newcomer Joe Alwyn in the upcoming adaptation of Ben Fountain’s 2012 bestseller.
The film will tell the story of 19-year-old soldier Billy Lynn and his squad, who survive an Iraq battle that is captured by embedded news cameras, causing them to become celebrated as heroes. They are brought home by the US administration for a promotional tour that culminates at the halftime show of a Thanksgiving Day football game in Texas, before they are returned to the war. Almost the entire movie takes place during the game, with flashes away to other events.
“I am very excited to be going back to work and to be collaborating with my old friend Tom Rothman,” Lee said in a statement last fall. “The most important thing to me is storytelling and ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ is a story that immediately gripped me. I look forward to starting the creative process with this extraordinary team of collaborators.”
Originally optioned by Film4 — who will produce alongside Lee, Ink Factory’s Stephen and Simon Cornwell and Rhodri Thomas — Fountain’s novel has been adapted by Simon Beaufoy, who took home an Academy Award for his work on Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.
Martin was last on the big screen in 2011’s The Big Year and will soon lend his voice to the animated adventure Home, hitting theaters March 27.
(Photo Credit: Brian To / WENN.com)
