Ang Lee must enjoy directing newcomers. For the second consecutive project, Lee will direct a young first-time movie actor.
Lee has cast British actor Joe Alwyn to star as the titular character for Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk, sources for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter confirmed.
Billy Lynn is based on the novel by Ben Fountain and centers on a 19-year-old private whose actions in Iraq were captured by cameras. When he and his fellow soldiers return to the U.S., they have to go on a promotional tour that ends at a Texas Thanksgiving Day game. The action is told through flashbacks.
Simon Beafoy adapted the novel. The project, officially confirmed earlier this month, is a co-production between Sony’s TriStar, the U.K.’s Film4, Studio 8 and China’s Bona Fide Film Group. Sony is handling all overseas distribution, although Bona Film Group will release it in China.
Lee plans to shoot the film in 3D, just like he did with Life of Pi, which won im his second Best Director Oscar. Like Billy Lynn, Pi also starred a first-time actor, Suraj Sharma. Since making that film, Sharma has appeared on Homeland and in Disney’s Million Dollar Arm.
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