Ang Lee circles 'Life of Pi' film

Director in talks with Fox 2000 to adapt novel

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Ang Lee is in talks to direct "Life of Pi," the Fox 2000 adaptation of Yann Martel's coming-of-age survival tale.

Novel revolves around a youth who is the lone survivor of a sunken freighter and winds up sharing a lifeboat with a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and a hungry Bengal tiger.

The novel, which won the Man Booker Prize, was a global publishing phenomenon when Fox 2000's Elizabeth Gabler acquired rights to the tome.

Gil Netter is producing.

The project has been through several incarnations, first with scribe Dean Georgaris, then M. Night Shyamalan. Lee will supervise a new script. Studio will hire a writer shortly.

Project was most recently developed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who wrote a script with his "Amelie" collaborator Guillaume Laurent.

Lee, who last directed "Lust, Caution" and "Brokeback Mountain," most recently completed "Taking Woodstock," an adaptation of the Tom Monte book. Focus Features releases the film in August.

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