Ang Lee is in negotiations to direct Life of Pi, Fox 2000's adaptation of Yann Martel's coming-of-age survival tale, according to Variety.

The novel revolves around a youth who is the lone survivor of a sunken freighter and winds up sharing a lifeboat with a hyena, an injured zebra, an orangutan and a hungry Bengal tiger.

The novel, which won the Man Booker Prize, was a global publishing phenomenon when Fox 2000's Elizabeth Gabler acquired rights to the tome.

Gil Netter is producing.

The project has been through several incarnations, first with scribe Dean Georgaris, then M. Night Shyamalan. Lee will supervise a new script. The studio will hire a writer shortly.

The project was most recently developed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who wrote a script with his Amelie collaborator Guillaume Laurent.