Life of Pi (film)
Life of Pi is a 2012 adventure-drama film directed and produced by Ang Lee and written by David Magee. Based on Yann Martel's 2001 novel, it stars Suraj Sharma in his film debut, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu and Adil Hussain in lead roles. The storyline revolves around Pi Patel, a 16-year old Indian boy, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, who are both stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days after a shipwreck.
The film began development shortly after the release of the book and would see directors M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuarón and Jean-Pierre Jeunet involved at various stages before the hiring of Lee. Filming was split between India, Taiwan and Montreal in 2011, with Rhythm & Hues Studios handling the visual effects work.
The film had its worldwide premiere as the opening film of the 50th New York Film Festival at both the Walter Reade Theater and Alice Tully Hall in New York City on September 28, 2012. It was theatrically released in the United States on November 21 by 20th Century Fox.
Life of Pi became a commercial success, having grossed over $609 million, and received generally positive reviews from critics. It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture – Drama and Best Director, and won for Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. At the 85th Academy Awards, it had 11 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won four, including Best Director for Ang Lee.
Plot
In Montreal, Canada, a writer meets Pi Patel, whom he has been told would be a good subject for a book. Pi tells the writer the following story:Pi's father names him Piscine Molitor Patel after Piscine Molitor, a famous French swimming pool. In secondary school in Pondicherry, he adopts the Greek letter "Pi" as his nickname to avoid bullying, because his first name Piscine sounds like ‘pissing’. He is raised in a Hindu family, but at 12 years old, he is introduced to Christianity and then Islam, and decides to follow all three religions as he "just wants to love God".
Pi's mother supports his desire to grow, but his rationalist father tries to secularize him. Their family owns a zoo, and Pi takes interest in a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. After he gets dangerously close to Richard Parker, his father forces him to witness it killing a goat.
When Pi is 16, his father announces that due to "The Emergency", they must move to Canada, where he intends to settle and sell the animals. The family books passage with the animals on a Japanese freighter. During a storm, the ship founders while Pi is on deck. He struggles to find his family, but a crewman throws him into a lifeboat. A freed plains zebra jumps onto the boat with him, breaking its leg. The ship sinks into the Mariana Trench, drowning his family.
After the storm, Pi awakens in the lifeboat with the zebra and is joined by a Bornean orangutan. A spotted hyena emerges from under a tarpaulin, forcing Pi to retreat to the end of the boat. The hyena kills the zebra and later the orangutan. Richard Parker suddenly emerges from under the tarpaulin, killing the hyena before retreating to cover.
Pi fashions a small raft which he tethers to the lifeboat to be safe from Richard Parker. His moral code is against killing, but he begins fishing, enabling him to sustain the tiger. When the tiger jumps into the sea to hunt for fish and swims toward Pi, he considers letting him drown but ultimately helps him into the boat. One night, a humpback whale destroys the raft and its supplies. Pi trains Richard Parker to accept him in the boat and realizes that caring for the tiger is helping to keep himself alive.
Weeks later, they encounter a floating island. It is a lush jungle of edible plants, freshwater pools and a large population of meerkats, enabling Pi and Richard Parker to eat, drink and regain strength. At night, the island transforms into a hostile environment. Richard Parker retreats to the lifeboat while Pi and the meerkats sleep in the trees; the water pools turn acidic. Pi deduces that the island is carnivorous after finding a human tooth embedded in a flower.
Pi and Richard Parker leave the island, reaching Mexico after over 200 days at sea. Pi is heartbroken that Richard Parker does not acknowledge him before disappearing into the jungle. While he recovers in a hospital, insurance agents for the Japanese freighter company interview him, but do not believe his story and ask what really happened, specifically concerning why the ship sank.
So Pi retells the story, in which the animals are replaced by humans: his mother for the orangutan, an amiable Buddhist sailor for the zebra, the ship's brutish cook for the hyena, and Pi himself for Richard Parker. The cook kills the sailor and feeds on his flesh. He then kills Pi's mother, after which Pi kills him and uses his remains as food and fish bait. The insurance agents are dissatisfied with this story but leave without questioning him further.
When the writer recognizes the animal story may be an allegory for the human story, Pi says that it does not matter which story is true because his family died either way, and neither story provides the explanation the insurance company wanted. He asks which story the author prefers, and the author chooses the first, to which Pi replies, "and so it goes with God". Glancing at a copy of the insurance report, the writer reads that Pi survived his adventure "in the company of an adult Bengal tiger".
Cast
Production
Development
The project had numerous directors and writers attached, and the Los Angeles Times credited Fox 2000 Pictures executive Elizabeth Gabler with keeping the project active.The following October, Fox 2000 announced a partnership with M. Night Shyamalan to direct the film. Shyamalan was attracted to the novel particularly because its main character also comes from Pondicherry in India. The partners anticipated for Shyamalan to direct the film adaptation after completing The Village. He also replaced Georgaris as the screenwriter, writing a new screenplay for the film. Ultimately, Shyamalan chose to film Lady in the Water after The Village; he said later, "I was hesitant because the book has kind of a twist ending. And I was concerned that as soon as you put my name on it, everybody would have a different experience."
In March 2005, Fox 2000 entered talks with Alfonso Cuarón to direct. Cuarón decided to direct Children of Men instead, and in October 2005, Fox 2000 hired Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct the film. Jeunet began writing the screenplay with Guillaume Laurant, and filming was scheduled to begin in mid-2006, partially in India. Jeunet eventually left the project.
In February 2009, Fox 2000 Pictures hired Ang Lee to direct the film. In May 2010, Lee and the producer Gil Netter proposed a reported budget of US$120 million, at which the studio balked, placing the project's development on hold for a short time. David Magee was hired to write the screenplay, as Lee began to spend several months looking for someone to cast as Pi. Lee stated that water was a major inspiration behind making the film in 3-D: "I thought this was a pretty impossible movie to make technically. It's so expensive for what it is. You sort of have to disguise a philosophical book as an adventure story. I thought of 3-D half a year before 'Avatar' was on the screen. I thought water, with its transparency and reflection, the way it comes out to you in 3-D, would create a new theatrical experience and maybe the audience or the studio would open up their minds a little bit to accept something different." Following the premiere of the film, Lee stated that his desire to take risks and chances helped with his direction, saying "In a strange way it did feel like we're the vessels, we have to surrender to movie god. We have to let things happen. I just had this feeling, I'll follow this kid to wherever this movie takes me. I saw the movie start to unravel in front of me."
Pre-production and casting
After 3,000 young men auditioned for the film's lead, in October 2010 Lee cast Suraj Sharma, a 17-year-old student and an acting newcomer. Upon receiving the role, Sharma underwent extensive training in ocean survival, and in yoga and meditation practices to prepare for the part. Two months after Sharma was cast, it was announced that Gérard Depardieu would play the role of the Cook, Irrfan Khan would play the adult Pi, and Adil Hussain would play Pi's father, while Tabu was in talks to play the role of Pi's mother.Canadian actor Rajiv Surendra, who had played a small part in Mean Girls, was one of the auditioners for the role of Pi. In 2016, he published The Elephants in My Backyard, a memoir of his failed campaign to win the part. In an interview with Deccan Chronicle in 2017, American actor Naren Weiss revealed that he too unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Pi.
In April 2011, it was announced that Tobey Maguire would be joining the film in the role originally referred to as "a reporter." In September 2012, it was announced that Lee had cut Maguire from the film: "to be consistent with the other casting choices made for the film, I decided to go with an entirely international cast"; Lee called Maguire "too jarringly recognizable". He reshot the scenes with Rafe Spall in the role of the book's actual author.