Based on the novel of the same name by Yann Martell, Life of Pi is one of the most unique and visually appealing movies of the past decade. The film tells the story of a young boy who, after a ship carrying his family to Canada sinks, finds himself stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with an adult Bengal Tiger.
Directed by Ang Lee, the film was a marvel for the CGI industry, with the visual effects artists working their magic to create one of the most realistic CGI animals of all time. The film was a critical success, with the film receiving eleven Academy Award nominations, including a Best Director win for Ang Lee.
10 Tobey Maguire Was Originally Cast As The Writer
The structure of Life of Pi is fairly unique and compelling. The bulk of the movie is told in flashback, with the framing device being a now-adult Pi recounting the tale to a writer who had heard about his tale of survival and wished to turn Pi’s story into a book. In the film, the role of The Writer (who’s unnamed in both film and book) went to Rafe Spall. However, this wasn’t always going to be the case.
Originally, Tobey Maguire was cast in the role, but Ang Lee changed his mind as he didn’t want the character to be too recognizable and thus too distracting for the film.
9 Ang Lee Consulted A Real Life Shipwreck Survivor
Life of Pi tells the story of a young boy who finds himself stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after the ship carrying his family (and zoo animals) to Canada is sunk as a result of terrible weather on the voyage.
While the story is far fetched in some places, similar events have occurred to others in the past. In fact, Ang Lee actually hired a ‘Nautical Consultant’ named Stephen Callahan to consult on the movie. Callahan had survived for 76 days in the Atlantic after his ship sank, making his experience vital to Life of Pi’s drama and emotions. Callahan’s story can be read in his memoir Adrift: 76 Days Lost At Sea.
8 Suraj Sharma Didn’t Intend To Audition
Some may be surprised to learn that despite being the lead of the movie, Suraj Sharma didn’t actually intend to audition for the part. Initially, Sharma arrived at the audition to support his brother.
Sharma’s brother promised him a Subway if he would support him at the audition as moral support, but ultimately the part went to Sharma after his brother’s manager suggested this to Ang Lee. This accidental casting paid off, as Sharma would go on to appear in the series Homeland and even the bonkers meta-slasher sequel Happy Death Day 2U.
7 Richard Parker Has Some Morbid Historical Connections
Famously, the tiger in the movie is called Richard Parker. While Richard Parker is a strange name for a tiger, it wasn’t intentional. The hunter who found the tiger was called Richard Parker, and the tiger was called Thirsty. Due to an administrational error, the names were switched.
However, the tiger known as Richard Parker isn’t the only Richard Parker to be stranded at sea. In 1884, a ship sank with only four survivors. One survivor, a cabin boy called Richard Parker, was killed and eaten by the other survivors.
6 Suraj Sharma Didn’t Actually Share A Boat With A Tiger
The visual effects of Life of Pi are some of the most groundbreaking and realistic of all time. While the film did use a real tiger in some shots, it was impossible to tell which scenes used a real tiger and which used a CGI tiger.
Some may be surprised to learn, then, that at no point was the tiger in the boat with Suraj Sharma a real tiger. Obviously, this was done for safety reasons. The real tiger was only used for some swimming scenes, with handlers and animal control present at all times.
5 Pi Was Stranded For 227 Days
The movie does a fantastic job of showing the effects of being stranded at sea for such a long period of time. The story explores both the physical and mental effects of being essentially exiled from human contact for an extended period of time.
All in all, Pi is stranded for 227 days in the Pacific Ocean. What is interesting is that this number isn’t just a random value; it’s actually a good approximation of the number Pi (as in 22/7).
4 Life Of Pi Bankrupted Its VFX Studio
Even for its time, the visual effects in Life of Pi are truly incredible. Many would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the real tiger and the fake tiger, in addition to the beautiful shots of the fish swimming through the ocean and so on. However, a sad result of this movie is that the VFX studio behind Life of Pi, Rhythm and Hues, would be rendered bankrupt just three months after the movie opened in cinemas
The main reasons behind this is alleged to be the several changes to the effects made without payment for the extra work. Most infamously, Ang Lee didn’t mention the studio in his Oscar acceptance speech and the studio’s representatives were suddenly cut off when they spoke up for visual effects artists who were being underpaid and mistreated.
3 The Carnivorous Island Resembles A Hindu God
The carnivorous island is one of the most memorable aspects of the movie and book. The island provides Pi and Richard Parker with some well needed nourishment, as well as introducing an adorable community of meerkats.
Famously, Pi and Richard Parker are forced to flee the island after learning that it was carnivorous, with the pools on the island turning acidic overnight. What’s interesting about the film’s carnivorous island is that it was actually shaped after the Hindu deity Vishnu lying down on the ocean. This is a callback to Pi’s opening lines in the film, where he mentions Lord Vishnu doing this exact thing.
2 Life Of Pi Has A Weird Oscar Record
Overall, Life of Pi was a huge critical success, with the movie receiving a total of eleven Oscar nominations and taking home four. What is interesting, however, is that despite winning the Oscar for Best Director, the film didn’t receive the Oscar for Best Motion Picture.
At the time, this was the first time in seven years that a movie had received the award for Best Director without taking home the Best Picture award. Strangely enough, the last film to do this was Brokeback Mountain, also directed by Ang Lee.
1 One Scene Pays Tribute To The Book’s Most Famous Cover
Life of Pi is based on one of the most beloved books of all time, with Ang Lee doing an incredible job of transferring Yann Martell’s vision and the magic nature of the story from the page and onto the silver screen.
Ang Lee gave several homages to the book during the movie, with one of the most memorable being Pi lying on the tarpaulin above Richard Parker. This is based on one of the most well-known covers of the book.
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