Two more climb on Elephants

Actors Sean Penn and Robert Pattinson are in the middle of talks to be cast onto the upcoming feature Water for Elephants. The picture, being directed by Francis Lawrence, already has Reese Witherspoon on board (Variety). Yet again, this feature is a novel adaptation based off of the book written by Sara Gruen.

The novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski (Pattinson), recounts the wild and wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car crash, leaving him penniless, he drops out of Cornell veterinary school and parlays his expertise with animals into a job with the circus, where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures. He also falls in love with Marlena (Witherspoon), one of the show’s star performers—a romance complicated by Marlena’s husband (Penn), the unbalanced, sadistic circus boss who beats both his wife and the animals Jankowski cares for.

Initial filming is set to start up in June with a to be announced release date. Producing the feature is Andrew Tennenbaum, Gil Netter and Erwin Stoff. Penn is currently latched back onto The Three Stooges movie as Larry while all the fangirls can drool over Robert Pattinson in the upcoming Summit Entertainment movie Remember Me.