Ang Lee to debut Life of Pi
16th August 2012 - 12:43 Noon
Ang Lee's eagerly awaited big screen adaptation of Yann Martel's Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi will debut at the New York Film Festival next month, the director has confirmed.
It will be the first time that a 3D film will open the festival and the second time that Lee has had the honour, after The Ice Storm opened the 1997 event.
Life of Pi is already being tipped for Oscar success and it is believed that its first screening on September 28th will position it for a strong run during awards season.
Richard Pena, from the festival's organising body The Film Society of Lincoln Center, said he is 'enormously proud' to have the film open the 50th New York Film Festival.
'Life of Pi is a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision. Ang Lee has managed to make a deeply moving, engrossing work that will delight audiences as much as it will astonish them,' he added.
The novel, which scooped the 2002 Man Booker Prize, charts the journey of a shipwrecked teenager who only has an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena and a Bengal tiger for company.