AMELIE director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is the latest helmer to sign on to direct Fox 2000's adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-winning Yann Martel novel LIFE OF PI, reports VARIETY. Jeunet will also team with his writing partner Guillaume Laurant to pen the script.
Novel follows the journey of a 16-year-old boy from India to Canada. After a ship wreck, the boy becomes the sole human survivor on a lifeboat with a hyena, an injured zebra and a hungry tiger.
M. Night Shyamalan was the first director to sign onto the project, but left when the studio wouldnt wait for him to finish his LADY IN THE WATER first. Next to circle the film was Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN director Alfonso Cuaron, who left to direct CHILDREN OF MEN.
Gil Netter will produce with Fox 2000 president Elizabeth Gabler overseeing for the studio, which hopes to start production next summer in India and Baja California in the water tank used for TITANIC.
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