The Tiger was pitched to us two years ago as the chance for Brad Pitt and Darren Aronofsky to reunite after they failed to get their version of The Fountain off the ground.  Pitt and Aronofsky are indeed producing---along with Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Mark Heyman, and Ari Handel---but that may be the limit of their involvement.  Deadline reports Michael R. Roskam (Bullhead) will direct The Tiger, an adaptation of the book by John Vaillant.  The script by Guillermo Arriaga (Babel) "takes place on the Siberian plain, where humans encroach on a tiger’s habitat with tragic results."  The lead role is an animal activist who must figure out how to stop the tiger that is slaughtering the villagers.  Pitt initially eyed that role, but the new report only mentions him as a producer.

The Tiger will be the English-language debut for the Belgian director, who is riding a wave of buzz ever since his first feature, Bullhead, earned a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination last year.  Roskam reportedly turned down many offers before saying yes to Focus Features for The Tiger.  Hit the jump for the book synopsis.

A gripping story of man pitted against nature’s most fearsome and efficient predator.

Outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East a man-eating tiger is on the prowl. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s murdering them, almost as if it has a vendetta. A team of trackers is dispatched to hunt down the tiger before it strikes again. They know the creature is cunning, injured, and starving, making it even more dangerous. As John Vaillant re-creates these extraordinary events, he gives us an unforgettable and masterful work of narrative nonfiction that combines a riveting portrait of a stark and mysterious region of the world and its people, with the natural history of nature’s most deadly predator. [Amazon]