Look at that picture above, it’s beautiful. This is a major Hollywood production for Fox. It’s quite refreshing for Lee to cast international actors and actresses instead of whitewashing. You may be unfamiliar with their names, but I’m sure you’ve seen at least one of these new additions to Ang Lee‘s adaptation of Yann Martel‘s novel Life of Pi. Gerard Depardieu (La Vie En Rose, Cyrano de Bergerac) Irffan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire, upcoming Spider-Man reboot) and Adil Hussain (Ishqiya, Butterfly) have all joined the cast, fronted by newcomer Suraj Sharma. Famous Bollywood star Tabu, known here for The Namesake, will play Pi’s mother, while Hussain will be his father. Khan will play older Pi. Depardieu will play the Chef. [Variety]

Scripted by Finding Neverland‘s David Magee, Life of Pi is billed as a “large-scale, all-audience” fantasy adventure and “tells the story of a boy who is lost at sea for 227 days in a lifeboat with three unusual and increasingly hungry companions — a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan. He’s left stranded in the tiny boat after the ship carrying his family and his family’s zoo sinks, and must find a way to survive.”

Life of Pi will hit theaters December 14th, 2012.

What do you think about these cast additions?