An Early Look at ‘Water for Elephants’

Sara Gruen’s bestselling “Water for Elephants,” a love triangle set in a 1930s circus, is coming to the big screen. Although it’s not due in theaters until mid-April, the trailer is already out. Though there’s nothing wrong with watching it on a computer, it looks really fantastic projected in a movie theater (at least it did at the ArcLight, where I saw it this past weekend).
The film stars Reese Witherspoon as a circus starlet, Robert Pattinson (famous for appearing in another literary adaptation) as the young veterinarian taken by her, and Christoph Waltz as her husband. Waltz won the best supporting actor Oscar for his role in “Inglorious Basterds,” and Witherspoon got a best actress Oscar for 2005’s “Walk the Line,” so there’s a good chance their performances will be strong. Some people aren’t as sure about Pattinson, whose appearance in the trailer is almost completely devoid of dialog. “It’s nearly impossible to judge from the trailer if Pattinson has any acting skills beyond that longing gaze thing,” writes our blog 24 Frames.
“Water for Elephants” was Gruen’s first historical novel. “I did all the research ahead of time,” she told Powell’s Books in an interview. “I needed to feel that I knew the subject matter in and out.” She did research into circuses, into various cultural sidelines of the 1930s, and into elephants themselves:
I got into the habit of walking up to elephant handlers at the circus and saying, “Hi. I’m writing a book. May I meet your elephant?” I got lucky twice.

Head to LA Times to read the full article.
Source: via Twilightish via TwiBritneyFan