Enlarge By Claudio Miranda, 20th Century Fox The Pi guy: Suraj Sharma, 17, an unknown Indian high school student, has the starring role in Life of Pi. Life of Pi and thinking to himself how glad he was not to have to adapt the best seller. Ang Lee remembers setting down the bookand thinking to himself how glad he was not to have to adapt the best seller. "I thought it was great movie material, but no one in their right mind should spend $50 million on this," Lee recalls. "It's too complex." Time for the director to engage in a little self-pity. Lee, who will adapt Yann Martel's 2001 lost-at-sea odyssey for the big screen, says he has found a leading man and plans to shoot the film in 3-D. And it's going to cost plenty more than $50 million. "It's expensive to shoot in 3-D," Lee says. "I know it's a great burden on me, but the story kept haunting me, and 3-D was the way for me to crack the book." Lee cast Suraj Sharma, 17, a Delhi high school student who acted once in a school play, to play Pi Patel, the young man stranded after a shipwreck on a 26-foot lifeboat with a Bengal tiger, zebra, hyena and orangutan. Sharma was one of 3,000 teenage boys who auditioned. "He read one complex scene, and by the end he was crying," Lee says. "We all were." Lee says he wanted to start the film in 2008 but was working on Taking Woodstock and expected to lose Life of Pi to scheduling conflicts and budget projections. Though Lee and studio executives would not disclose the budget, Lee says he asked for more than $50 million and has gotten backing from 20th Century Fox, which is releasing the film in 2012. But Fox waited. "It's like the saying 'Serve no wine before its time,' " says Fox chief Tom Rothman. "On a story like this, you want the best, and that's Ang." Martel, too, was happy to wait for Lee. "He's a brilliant, versatile director," Martel said in a release. The key to capturing those moments, Lee says, is shooting in the third dimension. "But we had to figure out how to make a movie about surviving on the ocean without Tom Hanks," he jokes, referring to Hanks' 2000 remote-island film Cast Away. Lee says 3-D is the most immersive way to put audiences on the lifeboat. "The ocean is perfect for 3-D. I think it will change the way people experience the sea." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more