Tag: Ang Lee
Tobey Maguire Joins Ang Lee’s Life of Pi
Casting update! This time, we’re here for Ang Lee’s upcoming adaptation of Booker Prize winning novel by Yann Martel’s, titled Life of Pi. According to the latest reports, Tobey Maguire will star in the movie that is currently shooting in India, where he will star alongside Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain and Gerard Depardieu.
No surprise at all, we already know the pair first worked together on The Ice Storm. So, there’s no doubt they make a good team together.
But, it looks that Maguire is on board for a smaller role this time. Apparently he will play the reporter in a bit role consisting of several days worth of work. Sharma is set to star as a 16-year-old Indian boy, while Khan is playing the adult Pi, who is being interviewed by a Maguire’s character.
Gerard Depardieu, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain and Tabu Join Ang Lee’s Life of Pi
We already wrote about Ang Lee’s upcoming project, Life of Pi, so you’re familiar with some story details.
Today, we’re here for a little casting update, because Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain and Gerard Depardieu have joined the cast.
They join newcomer Suraj Sharma, who will play the title role in the big screen adaptation of Yann Martel‘s bestselling novel.
Here’s the Life of Pi synopsis part:
“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.
Ang Lee’s Life of Pi Budget Too High?
Yeah, we already had a little chat about Ang Lee‘s plans for adaptation of Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi, so you probably remember that we also mentioned it’s going to be filmed in 3D, right?
Well, now, guess what? Something went wrong and it looks that guys from Fox think Lee’s vision for “Pi” is a little expensive for their tastes (remember the budget was reportedly estimated at $70 million).
Story goes like this: “The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting “religions the way a dog attracts fleas.” Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter.
After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker (”His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth”).
Ang Lee’s Life of Pi In 3D
Ok, we must admit that this sound’s little bit weird, but still, we have this kind of information to share with you – Ang Lee’s adaptation of Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi is going to be filmed in 3D.
Surprised? Well, we all are, but still, we’re happy to hear this is going to be Lee’s next movie, since we all know that the project had already passed through multiple directors including Dean Georgaris, M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuaron and Jean-Pierre Jeneut.
So, looks like Life of Pi, a fantasy adventure novel written by Yann Martel, is going to be Lee’s first 3D film. The project is now scouting locations Taiwan and Pondicherry, and it will be a big-budget film with a price tag of over $70 million.
Taking Woodstock
Taking Woodstock is the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee – and it’s a trip!
Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969′s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Featuring a standout ensemble cast, and songs from a score of ’60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish – plus a new recording of “Freedom” from Richie Havens – Taking Woodstock is a joyous voyage to a moment in time when everything seemed possible.
Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock Trailer
Focus Features has released trailer for Ang Lee‘s “Taking Woodstock“.
The movie based on the book of the same name written by Elliot Tiber, follows his 1969 true story, an aspiring Greenwich Village interior designer whose parents owned a small motel in Upstate New York and at the time held the only musical festival permit in the entire town of Bethel, New York. Tiber (Demetri Martin) offered both the Catskills motel and the permit to the Woodstock Festival’s organizers. The film also focuses on Tiber’s life as a closeted gay man hiding his marijuana as well as sexual orientation from his family, and his self-discovery following the Stonewall Riots.
Ang Lee To Head Venice Film Festival Jury
Director Ang Lee (“Hulk” from 2003, “The Hire: Chosen,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon“) will head Venice Film Festival jury this year.
Ang Lee twice won the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion award.
The Taiwanese-born director won the award in 2007 for “Lust, Caution,” and in 2005 for “Brokeback Mountain,” for which he also won a best directing Oscar.
His next movies are “Taking Woodstock” and “A Little Game.”
Oscar-Winner Ang Lee May Direct “Life of Pi”
Yann Martel‘s coming-of-age survival tale “Life of Pi” was a huge bestseller in 2000 and the film rights were snapped up almost immediately. Eight years after its publication and six years after it was optioned by the specialty film division of Twentieth Century Fox, “Life of Pi” has a new prospective director: Ang Lee, the Chinese-born auteur who won an Oscar for his direction of “Brokeback Mountain.”
Previous directors attached to the project include Dean Georgaris, M. Night Shyamalan and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
China has blocked ‘Shanghai’
China has blocked a Hollywood movie reportedly starring John Cusack and Gong Li from being shot in the country because of concerns about the script.
Luan Guozhi, director of international cooperation at China’s Film Bureau, declined to reveal the government’s concerns about the story for “Shanghai,” but said the filmmakers could make changes and reapply.
“We suggest they make some changes to the script and resubmit their application,” he said.
“Shanghai” is about an American who investigates his friend’s death in World War II-era Japanese-occupied Shanghai.
Zhang Ziyi and Ken Watanabe in ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’
Producer Mike Medavoy confirmed China’s decision to block the shoot, but didn’t give a reason for the denial.
