Tobey Maguire will star in Ang Lee's Life of Pi

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Former Spider-Man will play a writer

Tobey Maguire has been cast in Ang Lee's Life of Pi adaptation.

The Spider-Man actor will play a reporter who interviews Pi as an older man, following his experiences on the boat.

Presumably his character will play an important role in Lee's technique of adapting the story, as the key events will surely be filtered through the two men's interaction.

Acting-wise, things have been a little quiet for Maguire recently but that looks set to change: he's appearing in The Details with Elizabeth Banks and Ray Liotta this year, and he'll be playing Nick Carraway in Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby adaptation.

The lead role of Pi will be played by newcomer Suraj Sharma, with Slumdog Millionaire actor Irrfan Khan portraying his older incarnation, and the animals are expected to be CGI-animated. The film, like Gatsby , will be arriving in 3D.

A number of directors, including M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuaron and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, previously attempted to adapt the prize-winning novel to no avail, so it's promising to hear that Lee's version is still moving forward.

Life of Pi is expected to arrive in cinemas on 14 December 2012.

Matt Maytum
Matt Maytum
Former Editor of Total Film magazine

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.