The Making of Life of Pi

Book excerpt: Diversely illustrated with 275 photographs and illustrations, The Making of Life of Pi tells the inside story of how renowned Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee brought Yann Martel's international bestseller to life as a 3-D film. With a rich, entertaining text and a wide variety of facts, anecdotes, visual portfolios, and sidebars sure to delight readers of all ages, The Making of Life of Pi follows the making of the film from pre-production through final cut. Of course, you'll meet Suraj Sharma, the sixteen-year-old unknown Indian high-school student who won the part of Pi although he had no acting experience and didn't even know how to swim—yet in the end performed all of his own stunts. You'll learn about the massive wave tank, custom-built for the film that replicated a vast, stormy ocean in all its moods, thanks to a complex and specially devised menu of wave and wind combinations, some really powerful machinery, and tons of water. You'll get to look inside the fifty-page fully illustrated "survival guide" that shipwreck survivor Steven Callahan created for Pi to consult on his raft. And you'll read about King, Themis, Minh, and Jonas, the four Bengal tigers used in the film—and discover how visual effects were able to create a seamless 3-D image of the tiger Richard Parker. A foreword by Yann Martel, an introduction by Ang Lee, and an incredible range of visual materials—fine art, vintage archival imagery, and commissioned portfolios by photographer Mary Ellen Mark and artist Alexis Rockman—supplement the film's storyboards, sketches, and stills, rounding out this highly experiential book for lovers of the novel and film viewers alike.