Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is to direct an adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel Life Of Pi, which tells the tale of a young boy’s sea voyage from India to Canada; the ship sinks leaving the boy sharing a lifeboat with the only other survivors: a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), an orang-utan and a large, rather peckish Bengal tiger.
Sixth Sense brainbox M. Night Shyamalan was initially attached to the project but chose to shoot Lady In The Water instead. Harry Potter III helmer Alfonso Cuaron was also in the frame but opted to make Children Of Men.
Jenuet has begun work on a script with Guilluame Laurant, with whom he collaborated on Amelie and A Very Long Engagement. Elizabeth Gabler, president of the studio, Fox 2000, said, “So many filmmaker were passionate about this book but we felt a responsibility to the material to wait for the right one at the right time.”