Ang Lee explains his decision to adapt Life Of Pi into a movie

In the landmark 200th issue of Total Film magazine , we go on set with Ang Lee to get a close-up look at his adaptation of Yann Martel’s Life Of Pi .

The issue is available for only £1.99 on your iPad , and you can read an excerpt from the feature here.

Lee admitted initially that he thought the Mann-Booker winning bestseller would never be made into a film, telling us, “It seemed obvious that structure wouldn’t work for a movie.”

So what convinced him to helm the adaptation then? “They let me read the previous draft and I was impressed,” he explained.

“I thought first of all I’ve got to bring the structure, and it came to me, the idea ‘3D’. I just thought I needed another dimension to make it possible. I needed to find a voice for the movie because the book to me is not a 16-year-old voice from India, it’s a Canadian dude.

“I put Yann Martel in there [ Irrfan Khan as the grown up Pi tells his story to Rafe Spall’s writer ]. Then I got excited. It’s a difficult but not impossible project and I took the challenge, including coming all the way here [ Taiwan ]. I don’t think I could make it anywhere else.”

Life Of Pi opens in the UK on 20 December 2012.

For more from Ang Lee on Life Of Pi , pick up the 200th issue of Total Film magazine, which is out now! You can save up to 50% on the cover price if you subscribe with out winter 2012 offer , or you can get our interactive iPad edition for only £1.99 .

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.