New Images and First Footage from Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI

The official site for Life of Pi is newly flush with some cool content.  As you enter the site, you are greeted with a brief clip of what looks like the beginning of a tiger mauling.  Of course, in the book by Yann Martel, the Bengal tiger named Richard Parker kills a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra—everyone but our protagonist Pi (played by Suraj Sharma) as he and Richard Parker are stranded out at sea for 227 days.  After the clip, you can click around to find four watercolor-like images from the movie accompanied a snippet from the soaring score.  It’s a very impressionist glimpse into the film, but with a captivating premise in the very capable hands of director Ang Lee, I really like what I see.  I am now disappointed that I opted for the 2D screening of Prometheus, since a scene from Life of Pi played in front of the 3D showings.

Tobey Maguire, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, and Gerard Depardieu co-star in the adaptation.  Life of Pi opens on November 21.  Hit the jump for the images and the clip.

To listen to the song, head to the official Life of Pi site.

[via Lebanese Movie Guide].

Here’s the book synopsis:

The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them “the truth.” After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional–but is it more true? [Amazon]