This year, Ang Lee (Life of Pi, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain) brings to screens the first feature film ever shot in 120 frames per second, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. The first footage from the Iraq War drama screened at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show, and now there's an actual trailer to make Lee's fans excited about his latest project.
Adapted by Jean-Christophe Castelli (Slumdog Millionaire) after the bestselling debut novel by Ben Fountain,Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk follows a young soldier, Billy (Joe Alwyn), who is brought to a Dallas Cowboys game where he and other members of his Army unit will be honored for their service. "It's sort of weird being honored for the worse day of your life," says one of the characters. Vin Diesel, Garrett Hedlund,Kristen Stewart, Steve Martin, and Chris Tucker are all in the movie.
The book's description on Goodreads goes like this:
Billy Lynn's Long Half-Time Walk is a razor-sharp satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq. It explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad.
Ben Fountain’s remarkable debut novel follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.
According to Variety, CinemaCon attendees were shown 11 minutes of footage that cut between an Iraq War battle and a football game halftime show, presented in 3D and 4K at 120 frames per second.
"Any worries Ang Lee had about how the technologists at the Future of Cinema Conference would receive his presentation of footage from Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk were laid to rest on Saturday. The presentation of an 11-minute sequence from the film in its native format (3D, at 4K resolution and 120 frames per second for each eye) electrified the conference in Las Vegas, leaving even experienced pros grasping for superlatives to convey what they had seen. Their praise wasn’t reserved for the technology, but for the film itself as well."
Former Disney exec, now Society of Motion Picture Engineers executive Howard Lukk told Variety moments after emerging from a showing “I’m stunned. It’s a really powerful film, and a really clear presentation. It’s the best 3D I’ve ever seen in my life. The 3D is really, really good on this thing. Absolutely amazing.”
Visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren, a friend of Lee’s since they worked together on Hulk, also told Variety,“I thought it was amazing and incredibly emotional. I started to talk to Ang about the technology stuff and said ‘What the heck am I talking about? It’s an emotional film. I’m totally with this guy and the experience he’s going through, as though I was there, at the moment, looking at it.’ Muren, a fan of high frame rate cinema, said of the 120fps format, “You can see the difference. And feel the difference. It’s really about feeling.”
Bryan Bishop of The Verge saw things in a similar light.
"While still in its early stages, the footage screened certainly delivered on the promise of flicker-free, pristine 3D. As technologies like IMAX Laser have upped the ante on brightness used in theaters, 3D presentation has certainly improved dramatically in recent years. But Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk took things a striking step further. The image was impeccably bright, the frame rate resulting in utter clarity throughout the entire frame. It truly was more like looking through an impossibly-clean window than watching a screen, with the 3D producing no eye strain whatsoever. Given the lack of blur, it was possible to discern normally imperceptible details that simply wouldn’t be visible in other movies: from the way a shell casing pirouetted after being ejected from a machine gun, to the tiny puffs of dust in the distance when a bullet found its mark. Despite those extraordinary aspects of the image, however, the “soap opera effect” was still there. From the opening shot onward, the footage seemed like it could have been pulled from some fantastic and futuristic camcorder (or a television with motion smoothing cranked up), the change threatening to pull me out of the story even while the added detail was luring me in."
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk will be released November 11; the formats are still being decided.
Check out the trailer.
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