Ang Lee’s new project, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, is one we’ve got our eyes on. The Oscar-winning director, a darling of the Academy, is quietly assembling an intriguing cast for his take on Ben Fountain's zeitgeisty novel. Kristen Stewart, fresh from an attention-grabbing turn in Still Alice, looks like being the next to join Steve Martin and Garrett Hedlund in Lee’s ensemble.
The story flashes back and forth between a squad of eight US soldiers, the titular Billy Lynn (British newcomer Joe Alwyn) among them, sheepishly taking the limelight - and the hero-worship – of Cowboys Stadium during an NFL game at which they’re guests of honour, and their traumatic tour in Iraq. If and when she signs up, Stewart will play Lynn’s big sister Kathryn.
Simon ’Slumdog Millionaire’ Beaufoy has adapted the novel and will be juicing it for satirical, peppery comment on America’s relationship with its foreign wars and its own servicemen.
Shooting is due to kick off later this month, with Atlanta standing in for Dallas.
Stewart, like her fellow ex-Twilight-er Robert Pattinson, has been making some canny choices since that franchise wrapped up and this looks like another. Next up we’ll see her in Drake Doremus’s Equalsand Olivier Assayas’s Clouds Of Sils Maria, with a spot also secured in Woody Allen’s next project.