Ang Lee has teamed up with the Slumdog Millionaire crew to scout

Ang Lee has teamed up with the Slumdog Millionaire crew to scout for locations for the big screen adaptation of Booker prize-winning novel The Life of Pi, which is set in Puducherry.

Lee’s film is based on Canadian author Yann Martel’s novel of the same name. Set in Puducherry, the story is about a well-to-do zoo keeper’s son, Piscine Molitor Patel, known as Pi, who is inclined to religious texts and literature and curious to know about the world.

The political changes in India force Patel and his family to move to Canada where Pi finds himself adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The rest of the story chronicles Pi’s 227-day voyage across the Pacific and the powerful story of faith and survival.

The book covers almost all major locations in the union territory like the Botanical Garden, Mosque, Church, India Coffee House and Beach Road, among others.

After Puducherry, Lee is supposed to head to Taiwan and Thailand for location hunting.

Reportedly Puducherry-born Hollywood director M Night Shyamalan was very keen to adapt Martel’s novel.

Shooting will begin in January or February of next year.

Another Oscar nominee I’m sure. Irrfan Khan, of Slumdog Millionaire, is said to be up for a part in the film.