Dimensions
213 x 261 x 20mm
Part scrapbook, part travelogue, part production archive, this book is a collection of initial inspirations, intimate interviews, storyboards, sketches, souvenirs, snapshots, marked-up screenplays, notes, and film stills, that when viewed together, tell the story of how Pi came to life.
Life of Pi, the 2001 international best-selling and Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Yann Martel, tells the story of Pi Patel, a 16-year-old Indian boy who is shipwrecked on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with only a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker for company. A simple narrative, but one dense with metaphor, Martel's book explores the big questions of life, death, family, humanity, nature, and religion.
THE MAKING OF LIFE OF PI presents Ang Lee's challenge of translating a book whose main imagery consists of a boy, a boat, and a tiger, into a thrilling and visually sumptuous film.
This volume is rich with both stand-alone sidebars and a wide variety of illustrative material. Even as it follows the broader arc of pre-production / production / post-production, like a scrapbook or travelogue, there are many points of entry. This is a highly designed, graphically diverse, visually compelling book: readers can flip open to any page and find something fascinating to hold their interest. Vibrant montage of materials give the reader a glimpse of the creative and filmmaking process, of the way in which varied elements coalesced into the director's vision. Outside photography, art and texts supplement the more usual assortment of visuals generated by and for the production (storyboards, sketches, stills, etc.), rounding out this experiential book for lovers of the novel and film viewers alike.
