Simon Beaufoy Pens Adaptation of 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk'

LONDON – Oscar-winning scribe Simon Beaufoy has penned a big screen adaptation of U.S. National Book award finalist Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, currently being developed by Film4.

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The standalone filmmaking unit of U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 is developing the project with British and Los Angeles based production label The Ink Factory.

The Ink Factory optioned Ben Fountain's novel set in Dallas in 2005 which details the story of infantryman Billy Lynn, a 19-year-old Texas native, which recounts the final few hours before he and his brothers-in-arms return to war in Iraq.

In the U.S. the book is published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins and by independent publisher Canongate in the U.K.

It is billed as "poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking.”

The film will be produced by Simon Cornwell, Stephen Cornwell and Rhodri Thomas.

The Ink Factory is currently in production on A Most Wanted Man, directed by Anton Corbijn and based on the novel by John le Carré. The movie, which was also developed with Film4, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and Robin Wright.

The Ink Factory was founded in 2010 by Stephen Cornwell (writer of the 2011 hit Unknown) and his brother Simon, and were joined at the inception of the company by Thomas, a former vp, production and development at The Weinstein Company.