Ang Lee on Pi

LIFE OF PI is a bestselling novel by Yann Martel which tells the story of a young Indian boy set adrift on a lifeboat after a shipwreck with a multitude of zoo animals, including one very dangerous tiger. If this sounds like a bit of a WTF concept to you, it should be no surprise that diverse director extraordinaire Ang Lee is going to helm the film adaptation of the book, or at least that’s what he’s told Digital Spy.

“I think I’m going to do Life Of Pi,” Lee revealed to DS. “A little boy adrift at sea with a tiger. It’s a hard one to crack. I haven’t done casting yet,” he said. “I’m delivering the first draft. I think I’ve cracked the structure of the movie and I’ll figure out how to do it later. How exactly I’m going to do it, I don’t know!”

LIFE OF PI is one of my favorite books, and I’m happy to see a great director like Lee attached to the project. M. Night Shyamalan was considering the adaptation before, presumably due to the fact that the book has a twist ending, so thankfully we dodged that bullet.

As for casting? I’m sure one of those SLUMDOG kids would love another go at Hollywood, even if it does mean filming for a hundred days in the middle of the ocean with a tiger.