After being cast in Baz Luhrman’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby in 3D (sweet, sweet Jesus), it looks like Tobey Maguire is set to star in another cinematic adaptation of great literature—according to Deadline, the former Spider-Man has been cast in Ang Lee’s take on Life of Pi, the adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling novel.
Yes, Ang Lee’s long developing film Life of Pi is still going strong. The director has been trying to pull a cast together for the novel adaption for a while now and we were beginning to think that he’d never find the right people. But according to 20th Century Fox, Lee has hired newcomer Suraj Sharma to play the title role in the film. He literally beat out thousands of young actors to land the part. He must be one talented kid!
Now we’re all well aware of the danger when translating a fantastic novel to film, but Ang Lee seems like a culturally responsible choice to direct a Fox 2000 adaptation of Yann Martel‘s “Life of Pi.”
The book recounts the journey of an Indian youth who is the sole survivor of a shipwreck in the Pacific, but by some chance ends up sharing his lifeboat with a hyena, and injured zebra, an orangutan and a famished Bengal tiger. Sounds like a Noah’s Ark spin off, but it’s got a spiritually holistic edge that reaches across various cultural philosophies.
