Ang Lee's assistant says the Oscar-winning filmmaker is in talks to direct a movie adaptation of Canadian writer Yann Martel's best-seller Life of Pi.
David Lee said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Thursday that "the discussion has just begun."
The Hollywood trade publication Variety, which first reported the talks on Tuesday, said Fox 2000 Pictures owns the movie rights and Gil Netter is producing. Calls to Netter's office on Thursday went unanswered.
Life of Pi is a fable about a boy and a tiger who survive a shipwreck. It won Britain's most prestigious literary award, the Booker Prize, in 2002.
Taiwan-born Ang Lee won a best director Oscar for the 2005 gay romance Brokeback Mountain. He most recently made Taking Woodstock, a story set against the Woodstock music festival, which will be released in the US on August 14.
