4. Life Of Pi
An immensely popular novel upon its release in 2001, Yann Martel's fantasy adventure had been rejected by 5 publishing houses and had a relatively small number of protagonists, one of whom was a tiger. Considering the overriding themes of spirituality, myth-making and co-existence against adversity, the book was widely considered entirely unsuitable for a film adaption. Ang Lee pulled off some of the best work of his career in turning David Magee's screenplay into a 3D spectacle. Fully fleshed out characterisation, superb visual effects and an Oscar-winning score heighten all of the strongest features of the book, while managing to retain most of the ambiguity of the ending. It's very rare that a film works better than the source novel, but Lee's Life Of Pi is at least the equal of Martel's career highpoint.