Yann Martel's best-selling book, Life of Pi, has been ambitiously adapted by director, Ang Lee, into the big screen.

The book tells the story of a young man and a shipwreck, where he is left with a "starving" Bengal tiger as his companion. The book describes many magical and dream-like scenes and it was not "smooth sailing" for the Brokeback Mountain director to put it to life.

It was reported that because the book and its elements were deemed "impossible to film" many directors have reviewed the screenplay and didn't push through with the project. This pool of directors includes M. Night Shyamalan, who jumped in and gave up eventually.

When Ang Lee decided to take over the responsibility of filming the Yann Martel novel, many doubted how his execution will turn out. Because of the cold critical embrace of Hulk, Lee's effect-heavy past project, many are not quite sure about the director's first venture into 3-D filmmaking. Many elements, including the tiger nicknamed "Richard Parker," are CGI creations that are heavily used throughout the film.

Another setback that the filming crew experienced is the tight budget they had to work on in recreating aquatic scenes. The production team spent much time and preparation in Taiwan to stage the perfect execution of "Storm of God." For the scene, the filmmakers created the biggest self-generating wave maker in the entire globe. Talk about "making waves."

Suraj Sharma, the 17-year-old actor who plays the movie's protagonist, Pi, was the product of a painstaking and "exhaustive" talent search in India. Sharma deemed the most fit for the role out of 3,000 young hopefuls. Sharma did his best to prove his willingness by learning Pi's skills as described in the book. He learned how to fish, swim, gather fresh water, and sail. Aside from that, the young actor also had to experience drastic weight changes. He needed to gain 17 pounds of muscle to match Pi's look, and lose 37 to mimic the harrowing starvation the character experienced.

Despite these setbacks and processes the actors and the filmmakers had to go through, the reviews on The Life of Pi, conclude that Ang's adaptation is nothing short of spellbinding and spectacular. The director dramatically threaded each scene with ambition and honesty, as if telling the story from inside his mind.