Ang Lee's Life of Pi set for 2012 release

Jun 9, 2011, 14:46 GMT

Taipei - Filming for Life of Pi was near completion and the movie was set for a late-2012 release, said Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee, according to media reports Thursday.

'The shooting in Taiwan has been completed. Next, we will go to Canada for two days of shooting. Then the shooting is finished,' Lee was quoted as saying by the Apple Daily.

Life of Pi, which has been adapted from the fantasy-adventure novel of the same name by Yann Martel, is about an Indian boy, Pi Patel, the son of a zoo keeper.

Shipwrecked, Pi found himself floating in a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, orangutan and Bengal tiger for company.

Lee said he decided to make the film to portray the relationship between man and faith.

Suraj Sharma, a student from New Delhi, plays the role of the young Pi.

'The scene of Pi and the tiger were filmed separately, and will be put together through editing. We have brought in the world's top animal trainers and security personnel to make sure that nothing goes wrong,' the China Times quoted Lee as saying.

The shooting of Life of Pi began in Taiwan in January. Most of it was done on a set in Taichung, central Taiwan, and the rest at Kenting beach in southern Taiwan and Taipei Zoo.

Lee has also directed award-winning films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain.

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