Thaindian News

October 27, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Yann Martel’s Booker winning novel, ‘Life of Pi’ is going to be made into a film. The people who loved the book were eager to know the actor who is going to play the lead character in the upcoming movie. The new movie will be directed by the renowned Ang Lee. The director came down to New Delhi to choose from 3,000 candidates for the lead role. Insider reports suggest that Ang Lee has selected actor Suraj Sharma (17) for the coveted lead role in ‘Life of Pi’.

The director chanced upon the 17-year old Suraj Sharma after 1 month of auditions and immediately signed him up for the project. The script for the film has been written by David Magee. The shooting for the new movie is going to begin from January next year. Meanwhile the production team has scouted locations in Taiwan and India for the shooting of the film.

In the celebrated Canadian Writer’s book a boy gets lost in sea for 227 days with four animal companions, a Royal Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker, a hyena, a zebra and last but not the least an orangutan. The book came as a pleasant surprise for the book lover and it bagged the Man Booker Prize.

M. Night Shyamalan was first approached to direct the film but he left the project because of conflicting schedules. Another renowned director Alfonso Cuaron well known for his movies ‘Children of Men’, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ etc. was also approached for this film. Finally Ang lee signed on to the project and stayed on with it. Apparently, Ang Lee is a bit confused about shooting a young boy adrift at sea with a tiger.

The new film is expected to release by December 2012, until then the audience will have to be patient.