Ang Lee’s adaptation of award-winning novel Life Of Pi, by Yann Martel, brings a magical spectacle, with weird and wonderful occurrences (in 3D!) to the big screen.

Life Of Pi follows the exploits of sixteen-year-old Pi in this coming-of-age lost-at-sea adventure. In his onscreen debut, Suraj Sharma plays Pi; a young boy who is stranded on a lifeboat after a terrible storm sinks the cargo ship that was headed from India to America carrying him, his zookeeper parents and their animals.

Pi is left to assemble a makeshift family out of the remaining survivors of the shipwreck, which include a hyena, a zebra, an orang-utan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger, named Richard Parker. They are stranded for a mammoth 227 days until the Japanese authorities pick them up. However, no one believes Pi’s outlandish tale... so what exactly did he experience?

The casting includes Irrfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire) as the older version of Pi, Gérard Depardieu and Tobey Maguire (Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man) as Yann Martel the writer who interviews the older Pi about his experiences on the boat. It's not yet clear how substantial a role Maguire will have, although it is expected that the key events will be filtered through Martel and Pi’s interaction.

Life Of Pi will use largely-CGI animals, but those featured in the trailer are already promising to look a cut above the average special effect in terms of naturalism and movement.

Life Of Pi opens in the UK on 21 December 2012.

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