Director Ang Lee, seen here accepting the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion Award for his sexy thriller Lust, Caution in 2007, is the latest movie director in talks to tackle Yann Martel's Life of Pi. (Canadian Press)

Oscar-winning filmmaker Ang Lee is in talks to direct the long-awaited movie adaptation of Canadian author Yann Martel's bestselling novel Life of Pi.

Industry media reported this week that the Taiwanese director is in final contract talks to helm the project, while his assistant said Thursday that "the discussion has just begun."

Published in 2001, Life of Pi won much acclaim and gained international renown, especially after winning the U.K.'s prestigious Booker Award in 2002. Fellow Canadians Rohinton Mistry and Carol Shields were also shortlisted that year, for Family Matters and Unless, respectively.

Martel's fantastical novel tells the story of shipwreck survivor and zookeeper's son Pi Patel, who spends the better part of a year adrift on a lifeboat accompanied by a hyena, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger from his family's former zoo.

Film rights to the fable were sold early on, but the proposed adaptation has stalled over the years. Previous directors linked to the project included M. Night Shyamalan (Sixth Sense, The Happening) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, A Very Long Engagement).

Lee, who is completing work on his upcoming film Taking Woodstock, won a best director Oscar for his gay cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain. His other credits include Lust, Caution; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Ice Storm; Sense and Sensibility and Eat Drink Man Woman.

With files from the Associated Press