I haven’t read Yan Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel so I don’t really have any perspective from which to judge this first picture from Ang Lee‘s Life of Pi, which was adapted from the story of the same name.
In the image you see Suraj Sharma as the titular character, Piscine Molitor Patel, a well-to-do zookeeper’s son who leads a rich life acquiring a broad knowledge of not only the great religious texts but of all literature, and has a great curiosity about how the world works. However, political changes in India cause the Patel family to choose to move to Canada where Pi ultimately finds himself adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and, as the picture makes quite clear, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The rest of the story chronicles Pi’s 227-day voyage across the Pacific, and the powerful story of faith and survival at the heart of Life of Pi.
The film co-stars Gerard Depardieu, Adolfo Celi, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain and Tobey Maguire as the film’s narrator.
Fox has set a December 21 release date for the pic and it is certain to be one people will look out for come awards season, and it will be curious to see how it’s received. I know I’m interested in seeing it based solely on the synopsis and a wonder as to how Lee will pull it off.
Here’s the second pic, which is decidedly less interesting as it is only Lee on set.
