“Life Of Pi” has been knocking around Hollywood for years, attracting a number of talented directors including M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuaron and Jean-Pierre Jeunet but never quite being able to move in front of cameras. Last year, Ang Lee announced that he would tackle an adaptation of Yann Martel’s best-selling and beloved novel, and even completed a draft of the script. And then, as usual with this project, things went silent.
Today, Anne Thompson reveals that the project is still very much alive. Now using a script by David Magee (“Finding Neverland”, “Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day”) the film is set to be shot in 3D and is awaiting approval from Fox 2000 for its proposed $70 million budget. The fantastical story, about the son of an Indian zookeeper who is shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and shares his lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger, will utilize digital effects to create the multiple animals and ocean setting that frame the tale. Producers are hoping to get the film in front of cameras in August and in theaters in 2012. The cast will use unknown actors in the roles.
We can’t say we’re surprised that the film is becoming a 3D production, and we guess at this point it was sort of inevitable. And the lack of name actors and the big budget shouldn’t prove too great an obstacle to the film getting made when the book has such a following. Our only concern is dropping Lee into a directorial gig that will utilize such a huge amount of CGI. It will certainly be the most digital effects he’s ever handled on a project and his track record (i.e. “Hulk”) hasn’t been great. Regardless, this is the closest the film has come yet to being made but if it doesn’t happen, frequent collaborator James Schamus still has a “tragically, suicidally depressing” project ready for Lee.
