Academy Award winner Ang Lee, who directed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Sense and Sensibility," will direct an adaptation of "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" as his next film. This will be Lee's first film since he won Best Director Oscar for his groundbreaking film "Life of Pi," the "unfilmable" movie grossed $600 million at the worldwide box office. 

In a statement, Lee said, "I am very excited to be going back to work and to be collaborating with my old friend Tom Rothman.  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."

Rothman added, "Ang Lee is constitutionally incapable of repeating himself.  His very DNA requires him to always find new challenges.  'More of the same' may be the film fashion these days, but thankfully not for this exceptional artist. Ang Lee's Billy Lynn will be a true original, and TriStar is in the business of investing in originality, here combined with innovation.  Big movies come from such combinations, as witness Life of Pi.  We are grateful to Ink Factory, Simon Beaufoy and Ben Fountain for trusting TriStar with Billy's story.  Having worked with my friend Tessa on "Slumdog Millionaire," "12 Years a Slave," and many other films, I am also grateful to Film4 and sad (but only for us) that she got such a great new gig."

This also reteams Ang Lee with TriStar Pictures, who has been developing the project since the end of last year. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" is based on the acclaimed novel by Ben Fountain. Ang Lee is producing the movie along with Ink Factory's Stephen Cornwell, Rhodri Thomas and Simon Cornwell and by Film4, who originally optioned the book. The screenplay is by Simon Beaufoy. 

According to TriStar, "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" "tells the funny and heartbreaking story of 19-year-old soldier Billy Lynn and his squad, who survive an Iraq battle that is captured by embedded news cameras, causing them to become celebrated as heroes.  They are brought home by the US administration 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.  Almost the entire movie takes place during the game, with flashes away to other events."

Tessa Ross from TriStar added, "All of us at Film4 are bowled over that Ang Lee, one of the outstanding filmmakers of his generation, shares our passion for this wonderful material. It's a thrilling collaboration to look forward to and we're very excited to work with our partners at TriStar and this great team to make what promises to be a truly memorable piece of cinema."

Ang Lee won the Best Director Oscar for his work on "Brokeback Mountain" and "Life of Pi." He won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Lee also directed "The Wedding Banquet," "Eat Drink Man Woman," "Sense and Sensibility," "The Ice Storm," "Ride with the Devil," "Hulk," "Lust," "Caution" and "Taking Woodstock."

The film is set to start production in the spring.