Having been attached to the adaptation for some time, Life of Pi director Ang Lee has now officially signed on to helm Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which is set to be the first project to be released under Sony Pictures’ partnership with Jeff Robinov’s Studio 8.
Together with Bona Film Group, the company is joining forces with Tom Rothman’s TriStar and Film4 on the flick, which tells the story of a 19-year-old private who is transformed into one of America’s most sought-after heroes after a news team captures an intense conflict between his squad and Iraqi militants.
With Simon Beaufoy on screenplay duties — who bagged himself an Oscar for his work on Slumdog Millionaire — the big screen interpretation of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is certainly not short on talent, and in tandem with today’s announcement, Tom Rothman spoke of Lee’s visual flair and how the director’s method of approach will best suit the adaptation.
“Ang is pushing the envelope even beyond what we achieved in Life of Pi,” Rothman said. “Innovation is key to getting audiences out to cinemas now, but such advances often take a brave village. I have long admired Jeff personally and have great respect for Studio 8 and Bona. It’s a neat fit, as we are all in the business of trying to do cool things for Sony, not to mention we park right next to each other.”
In addition to this, Studio 8’s Jeff Robinov spoke highly of Lee’s involvement in the project.
“Lee’s vision for this remarkable story is incredibly exciting to all of the partners involved and perfectly captures the types of filmmaker-driven movies we want to make at Studio 8. We are thankful that Tom Rothman included us in this fantastic project and are looking forward to working on this together.”
Tell us, are you as excited as we are for this Oscar-winning partnership and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.