Strong Supporting Casts in Life of Pi

Ang Lee’s masterful new film centers on a teenager who is adrift at sea on a lifeboat for 227 days, with a fierce Bengal tiger. Riveting and breathtaking, “Life of Pi” is an edge-of-your-seat 3D adventure starring newcomer Suraj Sharma taking on the lead role as Pi.

Based on Yann Martel’s best-selling, award-winning novel, the movie tells a deeply inspiring story about hope, courage and the strength of the human spirit. Piscine Patel, (known as Pi) lives with his zoo keeping family in Pondicherry, India. They decide to emigrate to Canada, taking their animals along with them and set off on a huge freighter ship, steaming from India across the Pacific with plans to sell their other animals to Manila Zoo along their journey. But a terrible storm destroys the ship. The family and most of the animals perish. Pi survives, stranded on a lifeboat with several animals.

Stunning visuals in LIFE OF PI

From 20th Century Fox, the studio behind “Titanic” and “Avatar” comes an epic motion picture that will allow audience to experience the grand spectacle of nature and gasp at a young boy’s coming of age through disaster and salvation in “Life of Pi” directed by Academy Award winner Ang Lee.

Based on the book by Yann Martel that has sold more than seven million copies and spent years on the bestseller lists, “Life of Pi” takes place over three continents, two oceans and a wide universe of imagination. Lee’s vision, coupled with stunning 3D visuals, has turned a novel long thought un-filmable into a thrillingly audacious mix of grand storytelling and powerful and provocative themes.

“Life of Pi” is Ang Lee’s first foray in 3D filmmaking starring newcomer Suraj Sharma who takes on the titular role of Pi. The story revolves around Piscine Patel, (known as Pi) who lives with his zoo keeping family in Pondicherry. They decide to emigrate to Canada, taking their animals along with them and set off on a huge freighter ship, steaming from India across the Pacific. But a terrible storm destroys the ship. The family and most of the animals perish. Pi survives, stranded on a lifeboat with several animals. Ultimately it is just Pi and a Bengal tiger who miraculously survive 227 days at sea.
 

The two castaways face unimaginable challenges, including nature’s majestic grandeur and fury, which lash their small lifeboat. One particularly monstrous storm becomes a spiritual experience for Pi, leading him to question God’s plan for him. “I’ve lost everything! I surrender! What more do you want?” Pi rails at the sky. But through it all, he never loses hope. Pi finds joy from something as simple as an old survival manual, as well as from the solace of the ocean’s beauty: the bioluminescent, rainbow hues of magnificent schools of flying fish; the shimmering blues of the ocean’s swells; and a radiant humpback whale that streaks to the surface of the ocean.

In telling Pi’s story, Mr. Lee pushes the boundaries of cutting-edge motion picture technologies. “Life of Pi” represents a moment when the science and art of filmmaking have jumped forward, as it did with the visual effects of “Titanic,” the 3D revolution of “Avatar,” and the CGI work in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which brought unprecedented emotion and depth to the character of Caesar. And like Caesar, LIFE OF PI’s Richard Parker is a fully-realized, accessible character, whom you’ll believe was actually on that lifeboat with Suraj Sharma, who portrays Pi.

The attention to detail throughout LIFE OF PI is also impressive. Production designer David Gropman based Pi’s lifeboat “on archival drawings of a 1940s steel life boat”. He commissioned Haan Lee (Ang Lee’s son) to design Pi’s raft, that the character builds to separate himself from Richard Parker. ”I asked Haan to imagine himself as Pi, using the materials he would have had on the lifeboat: oars, life jackets, floorboards, etc. What Hann crafted was amazing, a triangle with a circle in the middle, which was a beautiful expression of ‘pi’.”

And through Mr. Lee’s use of 3D, the audience will be with Pi and Richard Parker, experiencing these extraordinary and visually stunning moments, immersed like never before in an epic movie adventure interwoven with an emotional and spiritual journey.

“Life of Pi” opens January 9 in cinemas nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

New Trailer of LIFE OF PI

ALL-NEW IMMERSIVE 3D “LIFE OF PI” FROM ANG LEE

Check out the movie's awesome and inspiring trailer.



Experience wonder and discover an unprecedented 3D experience in “LIFE OF PI” from Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee based on the acclaimed bestselling book by Yann Martel starring first-time actor Suraj Sharma. Ang Lee returns home to Taiwan to make the exciting and altogether magical adventure “Life of Pi.”

Suraj Sharma is Pi, the titular character, a boy who is lost at sea with a very hungry Bengal tiger, following the death of his family in a shipwreck. The boy and the animal have to survive a perilous voyage across the Pacific. The film centers on Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) named in honor of a swimming pool in France. He is raised in Pondicherry India with his family who run a zoo. An inquisitive and unusually philosophical boy, he learns about animal behavior at the zoo, explores different cultures and traditions and falls for a beautiful girl.

“Certain things happen politically and economically which force Pi’s parents to move to Canada and the family take their zoo with them on a ship. The ship sinks one stormy night and Pi’s whole family drowns,” said Suraj Sharma.

Ang Lee infuses Pi’s solitary voyage with emotion, humor and excitement in an all-new 3D experience. “I fell in love with the book when it came out but I did not think about it as a movie,” says the Oscar winning director of “Sense and Sensibility,” “Crouching Tiger,” “Hidden Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain.”

He admits that he was initially reluctant to take on the project. “Later though I thought I wanted the audience to see this fantastic book made into a movie. I felt I needed to share Pi’s amazing voyage. So here I am. I have come all the way to Taiwan on a seemingly impossible mission which is now being realized. It’s a great adventure so far.”

To enhance the cinematic experience, the decision was made to shoot in 3D, “the scope of the story is grand, because of that I thought I needed another dimension. 3D really puts you there with Pi, demanding your attention. You feel like you’re with him. It’s a more intense experience. It’s more dense It’s closer, more intimidating,” shares Lee.

“Life of Pi” unfolds in (Phils.) cinemas nationwide on November 28 from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

LIFE OF PI Trailer Debut

Based upon the bestselling book by Yann Martel, LIFE OF PI tells the story of a young man’s incredible survival at sea against impossible odds. A remarkable technological breakthrough in 3D epic adventure, PI is an emotionally captivating experience that will inspire, touch and transport audiences to a place of discovery that they will never forget.

Winner of the pretigious Literary Awards Hugh Maclennan Prize for fiction in 2001 and the Man Booker Prize in 2002, Yann Martel's "Life of Pi" is now a movie adaptation by 20th Century Fox helmed by filmmaker Ang Lee and is starred by newcomer Suraj Sharma as the titular character Pi Patel.



When Pi Patel, a son of a zookeeper turned sixteen, his family emigrate from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship due to the prevalence of political unrest. An extraordinary God-loving boy whose passion for stories is unmatched, has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and practices his native Hinduism along with Christianity and Islam. When the ship capsized due to a massive storm, Pi finds himself in the company of a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra and a 450-pound Bengal tiger aboard a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. Finally reaching the shores of the coast of Mexico, the Bengal tiger who goes by the name of Richard Parker flees to the jungle and Pi left on his own is interrogated by the Japanese authorities who refuse to believe his account.