生日快乐! to Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon director Ang Lee (李安) who celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday. We were really psyched that he was slated to direct a 3D biopic of boxer Muhammed Ali, but due to casting issues the project has been put on hold, if not canceled. Instead, his next film will be Slumdog Millionaire screenwriter Simon Beaufoy’s adaptation of Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk which in 2012 won the National Book Critics Circle prize and was named to the National Book Award short li st The Hollwood Reporter provides a synopsis:
“The film centers on 19-year-old soldier Billy Lynn and his squad, who survive a battle in Iraq that is captured by embedded news cameras, pushing them into the limelight as heroes. They’re brought home to the U.S. 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. Most of the movie is set during the game, with flashes away to other events.”
The book received positive reviews by The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.
Lee says of this project, “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.” We’re just as excited.
Here he is in 2012 discussing Life of Pi at the 5oth New York Film Festival:
Photo by Henry Lan from Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons