VIN DIESEL, fresh off the rousing US$342 million worldwide opening of “Furious 7,” and Chris Tucker are in negotiations to join the growing cast of “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” the adaptation of the Ben Fountain novel being directed by Ang Lee.

    TriStar and Film4 are partnering with Studio 8 on the feature project. Newcomer Joe Alwyn is starring as the title character with Steve Martin, Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund in various stages of negotiations to join the roll call.

    Simon Beaufoy wrote the screenplay telling the story of a 19-year-old private (Alwyn) who survives a battle in Iraq that is captured by news cameras. He and his company of soldiers are brought back to the United States for a promotional tour culminating in a halftime show at a Thanksgiving Day football game. Most of the movie takes place during the day of the game, with flashbacks to the wartime events.

    Diesel will play a professional soldier while Tucker will play a movie producer who is intent on making a movie about the soldiers.

    Both Diesel and Tucker represent big gets for the movie. For more than half a decade, Diesel has only worked onscreen on two franchises, “Fast and Furious” and “Riddick.” Tucker rarely makes acting forays and for the first decade of the 21st century, appeared in two movies, the “Rush Hour” sequels. His only other appearance was in 2012’s “Silver Linings Playbook.”

    Production begins later this month.

    (SD-Agencies)