Ang Lee has been responsible for quite a bit over the course of his career. He made a wire-fu movie that basically brought the sub-genre to mainstream American attention. He butched the Incredible Hulk. And let’s not forget his cowboy story, Brokeback Mountain. Now the director is looking at expanding his body of work with another interesting pick - an adaptation of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. Variety reports Lee is in talks to direct a film adaptation of the novel, produced by Fox 2000.
The acclaimed novel tells the story of a man who winds up being the only human survivor of a sunken ship. He isn’t alone on his lifeboat though, drifting across the ocean with an interesting collection of animals, including a zebra, and a Bengal tiger. There’s a lot more to the story than that though, with deeper philosophical ponderings and an intended allegorical level to the story.
I’m not a big fan of Martel’s book, although that comes more from personal tastes than the quality of what Martel writes. I can’t imagine how the book would be translated into a movie form and still be done justice though. Lee isn’t the first person interested in adapting the work. Dean Georgaris (Tristan & Isolde)), M. Night Shyamalan (The Happening), and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie)
