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 .
