Ang Lee’s Life of Pi Trailer

Posted by on July 25th, 2012   Filed under: Drama, Trailers

Last month, 20th Century Fox attached footage from Ang Lee’s upcoming film Life of Pi to screenings of Prometheus, and at the time I think it mostly puzzled audiences. Now this week the first proper trailer for the film has arrived online, revealing a little bit more context for the initial clip. This is Ang Lee’s first 3D feature, and it certainly looks like it will have some gorgeous, fantastical imagery. But what exactly is the story about?

Based on the novel by Yann Martel, the film revolves around a young Indian boy named Piscine “Pi” Patel. His family travels to Canada on a ship carrying animals from their family zoo, but when the ship sinks, he is stranded on a lifeboat for an extended period of time with a Bengal tiger and several other animals. The film explores spirituality both directly and indirectly, and it stars Suraj Sharma, Gerard Depardieu and Tobey Maguire. Life of Pi hits theatres on November 21st; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.



  • 1138sw

    looks fantastic!

  • cap

    Gerard Depardieu as tiger looks Oscar-worthy.

  • kyri

    Just my cup of tea!

  • BarBar

    Loved the book but it looks a bit too Lovely Bones – tolerable in a trailer but may be a bit sickly over 2 hours, especially with 3d too

  • Niklas

    Looks like something I would hate

  • Brendan

    Yeah, I saw that trailer when I saw Prometheus in 3D. At first I thought it was some weird 3D short because it just started without any indication that it was a movie trailer. It was just a scene with “Pi” on a lifeboat with a Tiger, then a bunch of flying fish came in. It looked pretty good in 3D, but it didn’t give any indication what it was about.

  • Bas

    I too loved the book. And I share BarBar’s fear. There are lot of borderline fantastical moments in the book that make for great visuals, but imo some of them are twisted by a protaganist on the edge of sanity. Maybe that’s just my interpretation, but outright showing those moments doesn’t feel right to me.

  • Owozifa

    I’ve read the book as well, and I’m very surprised they’re making a film out of it. Interested to see how it goes since it was one of those books I’d never expect to see filmed.

  • It will be very difficult to do this movie well. They might go overboard into The Fall/Cell-type visual effects. The book wasn’t meant to be a fairy tale or an action-adventure, it’s much more thoughtful and restrained.