Delhi boy does lead role in Hollywood movie

Suraj Sharma to star in Ang Lee'next

"Casting the sixteen-year old Pi was particularly challenging," Lee had said in a statement. "We searched throughout India for a young man who had the innocence to capture our attention, the depth of character to break our hearts, and the physicality needed to embody Pi on his journey. During his (Suraj's) audition, he filled the room with emotion, much of which he conveyed simply through his eyes. His natural ability to believe and stay in the world of the story is a rare treasure," he added.

After Suraj became a familiar name within a matter of days, reports said that he'd been whisked away overnight to a secluded part of Taiwan. He will reportedly undergo intense training there before he faces the camera in 2011, when Lee starts filming. He will spend the next two years shuttling between Taiwan, the US and finally Pondicherry, where "Life Of Pi" will also be shot.

Apparently, Suraj can't attend school in the interim, and will be provided private tutors. Says a source close to the project, "Lee has taken complete charge of the boy. For the next two years, Suraj will be preparing for his part as Pi, while being completely cut off from his family and friends in Delhi." As per the role requirement for Pi's character, Suraj will be taught to acclimatise himself to long hours of isolation

Collider.com

It looks like the film adaptation of Yann Martel's acclaimed novel Life of Pi is finally going into production. Director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) joined the continually troubled project early last year, and after an exhausting worldwide casting search he's found his star. Seventeen-year-old newcomer Suraj Sharma beat out three thousand other young men who auditioned for the titular role of a boy stranded at sea for 227 days with a tiger.

Last we heard, Lee was at odds over the budget of the 3D film with Fox 2000. One would assume that those details have been hammered out, as Variety reports that principal photography is set to begin in January in Taiwan and India in order to have the film ready for a Dec. 14, 2012 release date. This will be Lee's first time using 3D, from a script by David Magee (Finding Neverland). For a description of the story, and a bit more on the flick, hit the jump.

The film adaptation of Life of Pi has gone through a laundry list of directors over the years, including Alfonso Cuarn, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and M. Night Shyamalan (thank God he moved on). Lee is one of the most versatile directors working today, and I gotta say I'm intrigued to see what he's got planned for Pi. He's one of the few directors of whom I have absolutely no idea as to how his next film will look. Each flick in his anthology seems to be drastically different stylistically, tonally, and thematically from the previous one. (He went fromCrouching Tiger, to Hulk, to Brokeback Mountain in five years.) The addition of the 3D element and the purported numerous visual effects make things even more interesting (though I can't help but have nightmarish flashbacks to the aforementioned CGI-heavy Hulk). Nevertheless, it's nice to see this film finally moving forward. I have a feeling Lee's got at least one more Brokeback or Crouching Tigerlevel masterwork in him, and the caliber of the source material alone definitely gives this production a leg up.

A description of Life of Pi, via Amazon:

The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional'but is it more true?