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Director Ang Lee has completed a worldwide talent search for Life of Pi and has cast newcomer Suraj Sharma to play the lead role of 16-year old Pi Patel, a youth who gets stranded for 227 days through shark-infested waters aboard a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. 
The Fox 2000 film is a David Magee-scripted adaptation of Yann Martel’s Mann Booker Prize-winning novel about a kid who sets sail from Pondicherry, India on a freighter bound for Canada along with his father’s menagerie of zoo animals and gets stranded with those shipmates after an accident. I’m told that Sharma, a 17-year old student from Delhi, India, never acted before. He’s got quite a journey in front of him after Lee chose him after auditioning 3000 teenagers. The film will shoot in January.
Director Ang Lee Finds His ‘Life Of Pi’ Guy
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They didn’t cast Dev Patel.
No I’m glad they didn’t. The best way to go was cast an unknown in this role. So you’re engrossed in the story rather than getting weird vibes because that the guy from Slumdog is playing Pi.
lol that’s who I was expecting
so glad Lee is directing and not M. NIGHT!!!
Now Piscine won’t be played by a caucasian kid. Noah Ringer as Piscine Patel would have been awesome*.
*Sarcasm alert
The book’s original cover is still so wonderful. Simple, yet seductive, it immediately makes you want to find out what the hell is going on.
A newcomer teen from India, though he never act yet, I guess he won’t be chosen if he can’t do this movie after choosing from 3000 who auditioned.
I was sorry to see Jean-Pierre Jeunet wasn’t directing the film adaptation but Ang Lee is a really great choice. I’m already looking forward to this.
M.Night shouldn’t have let this project get away from him.
It could have been the one that restored some goodwill in his brand.
Oh well, with Whitta’s ’1000 AE’, it looks like Night is officially in the ‘gun for hire’ game.
Anyone worked with him recently? Noticed if his attitude has changed at all?
zero change….he does not read publicity, blogs or reviews. He lives in a bubble back on his farm.
He has no idea how bad the fan reaction was for TLA. Hundreds of terrible reviews over at imdb and he remains clueless.
That’s a real shame. I’m always fascinated by filmmakers like Night or George Lucas.
So much financial success and relative industry power, but they don’t seem to be operating on the “normal” side of behaviour.
I’m a total outsider (an NZ’er trying to keep the Hobbit local), and I’m curious to know how studios and producers try and temper dudes like this.
Is ’1000 AE’ a studio telling Night “Stay in line and do what we say, or buy a RED cam and start working on a sequel to ‘Praying With Anger’ on your own dime” ?
Actually, how DOES a director maintain a solid relationship with a studio?
Maybe somebody should send him a telegram. Or hire a skywriter. Or put a small paper bag full of his post-Unbreakable movies on his door step, light it on fire, then knock on his door and run.
I’m so glad that Ang Lee was so thorough and “auditioned 3,000 teenagers” – but can we once and for all be REAL and give credit where credit is due? Avy Kaufman (and her staff – and satellite offices in India and around the globe) “auditioned these 3,000 teenagers” and brought the finest to Mr. Lee.
Wishing the best of luck and a great experience to Mr. Sharma and all involved with this project!
I’ve worked with Avy and she’s a real pro. She’s also a total sweetheart.
Ang Lee is an excellent choice for this material and I can’t wait to see how he puts up this adaptation on the screen. Newcomer for Pi is probably the best way to go. I had heard that Gerard Derpardeau was to be cast as “the frenchman.” Night backed away from this project a while back. He was on record saying that the twist ending will create a wierd set of expectations w/ the audiance because he is all too well known for his “twist endings.” Saying scheduling issues is BS, I think.
Life of Pi is a fantastic book. M. Night would have made a hash of it. I think Ang Lee is much better fit for this material.
I was really scared M.Night was going to get his hands on Pi and bork it entirely, as he did with The Last Airbender. The only way Night’s bubble will burst is if the cold reality of dried up funding hits him. He’s been going downhill ever since The Sixth Sense. Can’t think of anyone better than Ang Lee for this, really. Fingers crossed for a great movie.
Now this sounds like one hell of a story,-stuck on a life boat with a bengal tiger! This is going on my must see list.