Oscar winning director Ang Lee will not be making his television directing debut any time soon. Lee has dropped out of directing FX’s Tyrant pilot.
The Life of Pi director signed on to do the project in February, just after winning the Oscar for Best Directing for that film. However, Deadline reports that he just felt that he needed a long break between projects than he anticipated. Lee spent four and a half years making Pi, another year on promoting it and spent time on the Oscar campaign trail. (The film wound up with four Oscars, but lost Best Picture to Argo.)
Tyrant will be executive produced by Homeland team Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff and Six Feet Under’s Craig Wright. It was created by Raff. Lee was really interested in doing it and liked the script. He personally called the producers from Cannes, where he is on the jury for the film festival, to telll them that he could not do it.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee, who also won an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, released a statement on Monday confirming the news.
"It is one of the most brilliant ideas for a series that I’ve seen and one about which I was very excited. However, after spending over four years making and promoting Life of Pi, I have recently realized that I need some rest,” Lee confirmed. “Because I cannot give 100 percent to this exciting project at this time, I cannot allow myself to do anything that may affect the potential for this exciting new series.”
Tyrant is a major project from Fox 21 and centers on an American family that gets unwittingly involved in a turbulent Middle Eastern country.