Few directors have proven as impossible to pin down asAng Lee, the Taiwanese-born director behindLife of Pi,Brokeback Mountain,The Wedding Banquet, and, most recently,Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. He’s a populist and has worked primarily with major studios, or their more independent-minded branches like Sony Pictures Classics or Focus, but his inclinations tend toward a quiet sort of audacity. For all the indifference that it was met with,Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walkwas a very good movie about an incredibly difficult subject - how America has a truly ugly tendency to sanctify soldiers while simultaneously showing an ambivalence for the psychological and physical torment they endure in their occupation.Clint Eastwood’sFlags of Our Fathersdid a far more succinct and compelling job of explaining this, but to ignore the lessons and genuine artistry ofBilly Lynn’s Long Halftime Walkwould be wrongheaded in the extreme.
Still, such serious-mined movies are easily the most difficult to market and get audiences excited about, at least in the modern landscape. The fact thatBilly Lynn’s Long Halftime Walkdidn’t put asses in seats was not a surprise at all. Hopes can be set a little higher forGemini Man, the science-fiction action film that, according toVariety, Lee is in very early discussions to take on for Skydance, from a script originally penned byGame of ThroneshonchoDavid Benioff. The movie follows a senior NSA official begins to be hunted by a young clone of himself right as he is about to retire from the agency, which puts it in the same realm as something likeLooper.
Lee’s name is new to the discussion butGemini Manhas been in the pipeline for nearly two decades at this point. The late, greatCurtis Hanson, cut from the same cloth as Lee as an artist, was set to take the project on for a long stretch. Before that,Tony Scottwas at the top of the list to lens the film. In both situations, the project fizzled but Lee could bring a unique perspective to the action movie. Unless you countHulk, Lee has never come close to this sort of story - he’s a man of comedies, drama, melodramas, and romances. And it’s just that sort of background that might make him ideal to turn this struggling property into a unique futuristic vision or even a new classic. For the man behind masterworks likeThe Ice StormandCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this could be a new place to challenge his abilities and map out his place in arguably the most populist genre out there.
