According to Variety, Jean-Pierre Jeunet is set to direct Fox 2000's adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-winning Yann Martel novel "Life of Pi."

Jeunet has begun writing the script with Guillaume Laurant, his collaborator on Amelie and A Very Long Engagement.

The book tells of a 16-year-old boy's voyage from India to Canada, a trip that begins on a freighter carrying animals his father is transporting from the zoo. The ship sinks and the boy is the sole human survivor, sharing a lifeboat with a hyena, an injured zebra and a hungry tiger.

The book was a global publishing phenomenon, and M. Night Shyamalan was given the assignment to helm the adaptation early on, only to exit because he wanted to make Lady in the Water first and the studio didn't want to wait. Conversations with Alfonso Cuaron followed, but he opted to direct "Children of Men."

Jeunet and Laurant have just begun writing. Gabler is optimistic the film can begin production next summer, with the studio likely to shoot part of it in India.

Jeunet already has been shown the Fox studio in Baja that houses the giant tank used in Titanic, and Gabler said it was a strong possibility to host most of the shoot.