MovieChat Forums > Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016) Discussion > Met one of the producers and got some ca...

Met one of the producers and got some casting questions answered!

posted 10 years ago by simcarter
2 replies | jump to latest

So excited, I haven't finished the book yet but it's FANTASTIC!

I met Stephen Cornwell last night at wrap party for Message from the King, Stephen is one of the producers on Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and cleared up a few things for me:

I wrote it up on my book to movie blog Chapter1-Take1
http://chapter1-take1.blogspot.com/2015/04/following-in-billy-lynns-footsteps.html

But in a nutshell:

While Joe Alwyn is a newcomer, the book is his book and this is his movie. So A Star is Born if he pulls this off, it's a very beautiful complex character!
Steve Martin does play Norm Ogelsby the fictional owner of the Dallas Cowboys
Chris Tucker plays Albert, the Hollywood producer type.
Vin Diesel is Shroom
And of course we know Garrett Hedlund is going to be perfect as the leftist Sgt. Dime while Kristen Stewart is Billy's beautiful sister. I was kind of hoping they somehow magically got together but looks like thats a no-go.

I'm going to be following this one closely, so check my blog out from time to time for new pictures, etc. So excited!

http://bit.ly/1ITdLZs

[–] zenbutt 10 years ago

The picture of Joe in the car is amazing. Thanks for the picture.

[–] carvedkid 10 years ago

Thanks for the info regarding who Vin Diesel is playing, simcarter. As I said in the thread regarding that I had finished reading the book, he was the one actor whom I couldn't envision as a character in the book. It's nice to know that he'll be playing Shroom.

It's also nice to know that my speculation regarding Steve Martin playing Norm Ogelsby was correct.

Btw, Variety has reported that Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk will be distributed by TriStar with a release date of November 11 2016, aka Veteran's Day.
http://www.variety.com/2015/film/news/ang-lees-billy-lynns-long-halftime-walk set-for-2016-veterans-day-1201475020/

So now I'll close this with a tune from Destiny's Child, the group who performs during halftime in the book.
Here's one with a very appropriate title ...
Soldier - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFJ3VKnwmJw