Ambition can be an admirable thing, and powerful when embraced, especially if coupled with sufficient aptitude to justify such pursuits. In the case of
Tobey Maguire, this relation between desires and abilities has served him well through a number of fun but ultimately unchallenging roles, especially the Spider-Man franchise, and he is now able to command multi-million dollar fees for each film role. With his part
now secured in the forthcoming adaptation of bestselling philosophical fantasy novel
Life of Pi, however, Maguire has perhaps committed to a project of profound folly. Maguire is set to play a journalist interviewing the protagonist Pi as he relates the tale which makes up the large part of the novel, that of him being stranded on a boat with three anthropomorphic animals who eat each other in order to survive. And, if this doesnt seem an infinitely unfilmable piece already,
Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) has chosen (or been forced) to shoot this cerebral narrative in the absurd medium of 3D. Lee said of working with Maguire for the third time after
The Ice Storm and
Ride With The Devil;
"I am delighted that Tobey has joined the film, he is one of my favourite actors that I have had the pleasure of working with and I am so excited that we get to work together for the third time."
Other names already attached to the project include
Suraj Sharma as Pi,
Irrfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire) as the same character in later life,
Gerard Depardieu,
Adil Hussain and Bollywood mainstay Tabu as Pis mother. The novel has been adapted for the screen by
David Magee with production duties being shared between Gil Netter and David Womark for the incredibly specific long-term release date of December 14th 2012. Maguire, meanwhile, is currently working with Weinstein product The Details and is set to star in Baz Luhrmanns equally preposterous sounding screen version of The Great Gatsby.