Ang Lee Recruits Steve Martin For Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Following a brief spell out of the spotlight, Steve Martin is staging his movie comeback for a new adaptation cooking up over at Tristar. The renowned funnyman has joined Brokeback Mountain helmer Ang Lee’s forthcoming flick, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.

The adaptation is based on the best-selling novel by Ben Fountain, and will trace the story of 19-year-old private Billy Lynn. Newcomer Joe Alwyn nabbed the titular role last week, playing the youngster who survives a harrowing Iraq battle that is fortuitously captured by news cameras. He and his squad, Bravo Company, return stateside at the behest of the U.S. administration for a promotional tour, which culminates at the spectacular halftime show of a Thanksgiving Day football game. It’s not all cheers, however, as the company face a dreaded return to the frontline.

The movie is expected to be set during that game, and will show the Company’s time in Iraq entirely via flashbacks to that pivotal battle.

Specifics on Martin’s role are being kept quiet for now. However, early speculation hints that he will play a movie producer keen to tell Lynn’s story. Also up for a hush-hush part is Unbroken’s Garrett Hedlund, who’s thought to be in contention for the other major leading role opposite Alwyn.

Oscar-winning writer Simon Beaufoy – who snagged the award for his Slumdog Millionaire script – is currently working on the screenplay. With production on Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk on track to begin this April, the scribe’s got his work cut out for him.

Read the official synopsis for Fountain’s novel – that’s been dubbed by many as this generation’s Catch 22 – below, and see what you think.

A razor-sharp satire set in Texas during America’s war in Iraq, it explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad.

Ben Fountain’s remarkable debut novel follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive “Victory Tour” at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.