Life of Pi influenced Life of Pi

Ang Lee's film of Martel's novel, screenplay by David Magee, four Academy Awards including Best Director. It keeps the structure that matters: the shipwreck, the 227 days with the tiger, and then the second and brutal version of the story told to the insurance investigators, with the audience left to choose. The book was widely called unfilmable with several directors declining to adapt it/passing on the project (including M. Night Shyamalan and Alfonso Cuarón), and the adaptation is faithful enough that the argument it picks with the reader survives intact.