If you were intrigued to see exactly how Tobey Maguire has been woven into the fabric of Ang Lee’s ambitious Life Of Pi adaptation… You won’t be able to do. At least you won’t in the theatrical cut, as his performance got snipped out in the editing room.
But don’t go thinking this is suddenly some massive beef between Lee and his Ice Storm / Ride With The Devil star. Or Lee getting a case of Malick Syndrome and decided to slice out half of the cast. Instead, the director simply realised that Maguire’s small part, a writer who interviews the main character in part of the movie, simply wasn’t working in the flow of the movie's cast. "To be consistent with the other casting choices made for the film, I decided to go with an entirely international cast. I very much admire Tobey and look forward to working with him again in the future." So Maguire is out and Rafe Spall has taken over the part.
Maguire, according to the Hollywood Reporter, is fine with the decision. “I fully support Ang's decision to go a different direction for this role in Life Of Pi. Ang shared a lot of the film with me, and what I saw was absolutely beautiful."
We’ll get to see the final film when it arrives on December 21.