Life of Pi (film) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Life of Pi Theatrical release poster Directed by Ang Lee Gil Netter Produced by Ang Lee David Womark Screenplay by David Magee Life of Pi Based on by Yann Martel Suraj Sharma Irrfan Khan Tabu Starring Adil Hussain Rafe Spall Gérard Depardieu Music by Mychael Danna Cinematography Claudio Miranda Editing by Tim Squyres [1] Studio Fox 2000 Pictures Distributed by 20th Century Fox Release dates September 28, 2012 (NYFF) November 21, 2012 (US & Taiwan) December 20, 2012 (UK) Running time 127 minutes[2] Country United States[3] Language English Budget $120 million[4] Box office $609,016,565[4] Life of Pi is a 2012 American 3D live-action computer-animated adventure drama film based on Yann Martel's 2001 novel of the same name. Directed by Ang Lee, the film's adapted screenplay was written by David Magee, and it stars Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu, Tabu, and Adil Hussain. The storyline revolves around an Indian man named Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, living in Canada and telling a novelist about his life story and how at 16 he survives a shipwreck in which his family dies, and is stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. 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.[5] Life of Pi emerged as a critical and commercial success, earning over $609 million worldwide. It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards which included the Best Picture – Drama and the Best Director and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. At the 85th Academy Awards it had eleven nominations, including Best Picture, and won four (the most for the evening) including Best Director for Ang Lee.[6] Contents Plot A Canadian novelist named Yann Martel meets an Indian man, Pi Patel, with some knowledge from Pi's late father's friend, known to Pi as "Mamaji", for a good book. Pi tells Yann his life story. In a flashback, Pi's father named him Piscine Molitor after a swimming pool in France. By the time he reached secondary school, he changed his name to "Pi" (the Greek letter, π) because he was tired of being called "Pissing Patel" (due to the pronunciation of his name). Pi's family owned a zoo, and Pi took great interest in the animals, especially a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. When Pi tries feeding the tiger, his father runs in and angrily tells him that the tiger is dangerous, and forces Pi to witness the tiger killing a goat to prove his point. Pi is raised Hindu and vegetarian, 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". His mother supports his desire to grow, but his father, a rationalist, tries to convert him to his own way of thinking. When Pi is 16, his father decides to move the family to Canada, where he intends to settle and sell the zoo animals. Pi's family books passage on a Japanese freighter named Tsimtsum. During a storm, the ship founders while Pi is on deck. He tries to find his family, but a member of the crew throws him into a lifeboat. As the ship falls into the sea, a freed zebra lands on the boat with him. Pi watches helplessly as the ship sinks, killing his family. After the storm, Pi finds himself in the lifeboat with the injured zebra, and is joined by an orangutan. A spotted hyena emerges from a tarpaulin covering half of the boat and snaps at Pi, forcing him to retreat to the top of the tarpaulin while it kills the zebra and orangutan. Later, Richard Parker emerges from under the tarpaulin, killing the hyena. Pi retrieves biscuits, water rations and a hand axe and builds a small raft to stay at a safe distance from Richard Parker. Pi begins fishing and is able to feed Richard Parker. He also collects rain water for them to drink. When the tiger jumps off to hunt fish, Pi considers letting it drown but ultimately helps it climb back into the boat. During a night-time encounter with a breaching humpback whale Pi loses much of his supplies, forcing him to eat fish for the first time in his life. Pi trains Richard Parker to accept him in the boat and realizes that caring for the tiger is keeping him alive. Weeks later they reach a floating island of edible plants, supporting a mangrove jungle, fresh water pools, and a large population of meerkats. Pi and Richard Parker eat and drink freely and regain strength. At night, the island transforms into a hostile environment: Richard Parker retreats to the lifeboat and the meerkats sleep in the trees while the fresh water pools turn acidic and digest the dead fish in the pools. Pi discovers that the island itself is carnivorous after finding a human tooth embedded in a flower. The next day, Pi and Richard Parker leave the island. The lifeboat reaches the coast of Mexico. Pi is crushed emotionally that Richard Parker does not acknowledge him before disappearing into the jungle. Pi is rescued and brought to a hospital. Insurance agents for the freighter interview him, but do not believe his story and ask what "really" happened. Pi tells a different story in which he shares the lifeboat with his mother, a Buddhist sailor with a broken leg, and the cook. In this story, Pi says that the cook killed the sailor in order to eat him and use him as bait. In a later struggle, Pi's mother pushed her son to safety on a smaller raft before the cook stabbed her and threw her overboard. Pi then took the knife and killed the cook, and managed to survive on the cook's flesh until reaching Mexico. The insurance agents are not satisfied with this story either, but they leave without questioning Pi any further. Next, Yann notes the parallels between the two stories: the orangutan was Pi's mother, the zebra was the sailor, the hyena was the cook, and Richard Parker was Pi. Pi asks which story the writer prefers, and Yann chooses "the one with the tiger" because it is "the better story", to which Pi responds, "Thank you. And so it goes with God". Glancing at a copy of the insurance report, Yann sees that the agents wrote that Pi survived 227 days at sea with an adult Bengal tiger, meaning they had also chosen to record the more fantastic story. Cast Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, the film's protagonist o Gautam Belur as Pi, age 5 o Ayush Tandon as Pi, age 11/12 o Suraj Sharma as Pi, age 16 o Irrfan Khan as Pi, adult Rafe Spall as Yann Martel, the real-life Canadian novelist who wrote this story. Tabu as Gita Patel, Pi's mother Adil Hussain as Santosh Patel, Pi's father Ravi Patel, Pi's older brother: o Ayan Khan as Ravi, age 7 o Mohamed Abbas Khaleeli as Ravi, age 13/14 o Vibish Sivakumar as Ravi, age 18/19 Gérard Depardieu as the Cook Po-Chieh Wang as the Sailor Shravanthi Sainath as Anandi, Pi's teenage girlfriend Andrea Di Stefano as the Priest Elie Alouf as Francis "Mamaji", Pi's uncle Production Development "I wanted to use water because the film is talking about faith, and it contains fish, life and every emotion for Pi. And air is God, heaven and something spiritual and death. That's how I see it. I believe the thing we call faith or God is our emotional attachment to the unknown. I'm Chinese; I believe in the Taoist Buddha. We don't talk about a deity, which is very much like this book; we're not talking about religion but God in the abstract sense, something to overpower you." —Ang Lee, on the use of water and the spiritual element of Life of Pi, November 17, 2012.[7] Life of Pi is directed by Ang Lee and based on a screenplay by David Magee. The screenplay is adapted from the 2001 novel of the same name written by Yann Martel. Before Lee, 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.[8] Gabler in February 2003 had acquired the project to adapt Life of Pi into a film. She hired the screenwriter Dean Georgaris to write an adapted screenplay. In 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. Shyamalan also replaced Georgaris as the screenwriter, writing a new screenplay for the film.[9] Ultimately, Shyamalan chose to film Lady in the Water after The Village, and Fox 2000 Pictures decided to find another director. In March 2005, they entered talks with Alfonso Cuarón to become the director.[10] Shyamalan said in 2006, "I was hesitant [to direct] 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."[11] Cuarón decided to direct Children of Men instead, and in October 2005, Fox 2000 Pictures hired Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct the film.