With shooting set to begin early next year, Ang Lee continues to build the cast for his gestating adaptation of Yann Martel‘s “Life Of Pi” and he’s added a couple more recognizable international faces to a cast that thus far is comprised of Bollywood stars and led by the newcomer Suraj Sharma.
Juliette Binoche fanclub president Gerard Depardieu, Irrfan Khan as well as Adil Hussain have all joined the film. Khan will play the adult Pi and Hussain will pay Pi’s father, with Depardieu in the role of The Chef.
The move is another interesting choice for Khan who is following up his “Slumdog Millionaire” success which some intriguing work; he recently signed on to “Spider-Man” playing the villain Van Adder.
In case you haven’t read the book, “Life Of Pi” follows the story of the son of an Indian zookeeper named Pi who is shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and finds himself stuck on a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. The project has been knocking around Hollywood for a while with Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Alfonso Cuaron and M. Night Shyamalan all attempting to bring the story to the big screen at various points. However, Lee has wrangled it into shape and the 3D film will hit theaters on December 14, 2012.
