Ang Lee says 'Life of Pi' tiger incident "was an accident," despite claims from Fox that it never happened

After The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier this week that the tiger named King in the film Life of Pi almost drown during shooting a scene in a water tank, there has been a lot of backlash and director Ang Lee has commented on the reports while in Manila and Taiwan.

"It was an accident," Lee told reporters about the incident, according to the Taiwan Central News Agency. "The crew worked hard to rescue the tiger and then showed him a lot of care, giving him five-star treatment." He later said in Manila: "We gave a lot of care to the tiger, as much as we possibly could."

Within THR exclusive report about animal treatment in films and TV, they published excerpts from an email the obtained from American Humane Association monitor, Gina Johnson, who was assigned to Life of Pi.

"Last week we almost f---ing killed King in the water tank," Johnson wrote on April 7, 2011. "This one take with him just went really bad and he got lost trying to swim to the side...damn near drowned."

"I think this goes without saying but DON'T MENTION IT TO ANYONE, ESPECIALLY THE OFFICE!" Johnson continued in the email, obtained by THR. "I have downplayed the f- out of it."

The tiger's trainer was able to assist King and help him to safety. A spokesman for the film's distributor, Fox, told THR that the tiger did not almost drown and that no animals or people are harmed in the filming of their productions.

So the tiger did not almost drown, but Lee told reporters "It was an accident." It seems to be pretty obvious what really happened, who is being honest and trying to have integrity about the issue, and who is just trying to avoid a tarnished image.