(IN): Ang Lee’s in India for Pi

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Hollywood/News-Interviews/Ang-L\

ees-in-India-for-Pi/articleshow/5912555.cms

 

<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Hollywood/News-Interviews/Ang-\

Lees-in-India-for-Pi/articleshow/5912555.cms>Ang

Lee’s in India for PiPriyanka Dasgupta, TNN, May 11, 2010, 12.00am IST

 

<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Hollywood/News-Interviews/Ang-\

Lees-in-India-for-Pi/articleshow/5912555.cms>Taiwan

born Oscar winning Hollywood director Ang Lee has been in India to scout for

locations for The Life Of Pi. The director of films such as Brokeback

Mountain, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon visited Auroville, Puducherry,

from where he left on Sunday for Cochin before heading off to Munnar in

Kerala.

 

Incidentally, Lee wasn’t the first choice to direct this adaptation of Yann

Martel’s magical adventure centering around Pi Patel, the precocious son of

a zoo keeper. Prior to Lee, Puducherry-born Hollywood director Manoj Night

Shyamalan, and Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban’s director Alfonso

Cuarn, as well as Jean-Pierre Jeunet had also been attached to the project.

Says Samir Sarkar, the local producer of the film from Puducherry, “I’ve

been the location scout when Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet had come

down to India. Last year, Ang was in India along with the screenplay writer

of the film, David Magee, of Finding Neverland fame.”

 

This time around, the unit has also called on Puducherry chief minister V

Vaithilingam to seek help from the administration so that the film can get

shot without hassles. India Take One productions, who have been associated

with Slumdog Millionaire and Eat, Pray, Love, is also involved with the

film. If all goes well, the six-and-a-half week shooting schedule will begin

in February/March next year.

 

As for the casting, nothing has been finalised, though there have been

rumours of Irrfan being considered to play Pi. His business manager told us,

“Irrfan will return to India next week before leaving for the US to shoot

for 10 episodes of the TV series, The Treatment, that also stars Gabriel

Byrne. There have been talks but nothing has been finalised on this.”

 

The plot of the original novel has Pi’s family deciding to move to Canada

after hitching a ride on a huge freighter. After a shipwreck, Pi is found

adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a 26-foot lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an

orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker – all fighting

for survival. However, getting to shoot with a Bengal tiger is a difficult

proposition, also in the context of the Animal Welfare Board of India.

Sources say that Lee might use computer-generated images to avoid

complications. Some reports have also claimed that this Fox movie will be

filmed in 3D on a budget of $70 million. Lee, however, is contract bound not

to talk about his film. He’s expected to leave the country by the end of

this week.

 

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