Back in May, we heard that Ang Lee was preparing an adaptation of Yann Martel's prize-winning book The Life of Pi, which was looking to start shooting this year, had been delayed due to budget concerns. Now USA Today reports Fox 2000 has worked through all their qualms and decided to fund the $50 million+ feature which will be Lee's first 3D film. In addition to finalizing funding, Lee has also listed newcomer Suraj Sharma for the title role of Pi Patel, the young Indian boy who's the lone survivor of a sunken freighter and winds up sharing a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger.
Production is slated to begin in January with shooting taking place in Taiwan and India.
In addition the film will be shot natively in 3D which may result in some seasick cinema-goers. The high budget seems like a risk for such a hard story to translate to the big screen, but the premium price for a 3D ticket will help Fox get their money back when the film hits cinemas on December 14th, 2012. In addition, Lee says the though of shooting in 3D helped him connect to the story more, "It's expensive to shoot in 3D. I know it's a great burden on me, but the story kept haunting me, and 3-D was the way for me to crack the book." I'm not sure what that means exactly, but we'll just let him run with it for now.”
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