Ang Lee’s planned adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker Prize winning novel, The Life Of Pi, has certainly had a long and winding road to the screen. Lee has been keen to make it for the last couple of years, but turning the book into a workable screenplay, scheduling and issues with the budget have all meant its been delayed over and over. Indeed at one point it looked like the whole project was dead in the water.
However it seems Lee is still pushing forward, with news that he’s found someone to play the lead role. USA Today reports that the director has cast Suraj Sharma, a high schooler from Delhi and a newcomer to acting, as Pi Patel, the teen who, after a shipwreck, is left floating in the middle of the sea in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, zebra, hyena and orangutan as his only company.
As you might have guessed, a film about a boy in a boat with lots of animals isn’t your usual sort of Hollywood flick, and it’ll also inevitably be expensive, with plenty of effects work and the technical issues of shooting on the water. Indeed, when the project seemed to be dead, it was because Fox saw it as pretty much an arthouse flick but with a budget of $70 million, and they didn’t want to pay. Now it’s believed the pricetag has been shaved, although it’s still north of $50 million.
Even the director sees it as a risk, saying “I thought [The Life of Pi] was great movie material, but no one in their right mind should spend $50 million on this Its too complex.” However it appears what may have lured Fox to think its worth the risk is that Lee plans to shoot the pic natively in 3D. “It’s expensive to shoot in 3D,” Lee says. “I know it’s a great burden on me, but the story kept haunting me, and 3D was the way for me to crack the book.”
Fox now seems to be fully onboard, although there’s still no news on exactly when we might see the movie in cinemas. Take a look below to see future Life Of Pi star Suraj Sharma.