Tobey Maguire ‘too famous’ for Life of Pi

Tobey Maguire has been cut from Ang Lee’s upcoming Oscar contender ‘Life of Pi’.

An insider told The Hollywood Reporter that it may be because he was ‘too famous’ for the role. He has since been replaced with the far-less-famous Rafe Spall, who played Millburn in 'Prometheus'.
 
[Related story: Sheen - 'I wanted to play Spider-Man']

Maguire was cast as a writer who interviews the central characters of the literary adaptation from the director behind ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’.

“To be consistent with the other casting choices made for the film, I decided to go with an entirely international cast,” Lee said in a statement.

“I very much admire Tobey and look forward to working with him again in the future.”

‘Life of Pi’ tells the story of a shipwrecked boy called Pi, who befriends animals on his journey around the Pacific Ocean.

Maguire also spoke out about the decision, telling THR: “I fully support Ang's decision to go a different direction for this role in Life of Pi. Ang shared a lot of the film with me, and what I saw was absolutely beautiful.”

The pair first worked together on ‘The Ice Storm’ in 1997.

Ang Lee won the Best Director prize for ‘Brokeback Mountain’ in 2006, but lost out on the Best Picture award to shock winner ‘Crash’, which many consider one of the great Oscar injustices.

Maguire is also set to star in Warner Bros’ ‘The Great Gatsby’, which was expected to be an awards contender prior to the announcement that it’s release would be delayed until summer 2013.

‘Life of Pi’ is set for release on 21 December 2012.