Ang Lee to direct best selling novel Life of Pi

Nathan Swank April 30th, 2010

Academy Award winning director Ang Lee is lined up to direct and produce the Man Booker prize-winning 2001 novel Life of Pi written by Yann Martel. The global bestselling book has had a lot of famous directors attached including, M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuaron and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The story is about a 16-year-old Indian boy who gets stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with a large Bengal tiger.

I am truly excited. One of my absolute favorite books has finally got a director attached with a hefty budget of around 70 million for a 3-D treatment. I’m not sure how I feel about the 3-D aspect. I personally don’t find the story necessary to utilize this new fad. It also sounds like they may be going a more fantasy route with the film. Which makes sense that you would have to use a lot of CG when you have a young boy dealing with so many aggressive animals in a close proximity. However, what I liked so much about the book was how real it was, I don’t want it to be seen as a fairy tale or magical story, I want it to be real. The real question will be who will play the young boy? It doesn’t matter, I’m sure they’ll have my money opening day.

life of pi