Rob Pattinson in talks to join ‘Water For Elephants’

Twi­light Saga fran­chise star Robert Pat­tin­son has finally found a stu­dio film to sink his teeth into. He’s in talks to star in Water for Ele­phants, the Richard LaGravanese-scripted adap­ta­tion of the Sara Gruen novel that Fox 2000 is putting together with Fran­cis Lawrence direct­ing. Reese With­er­spoon is already attached, and the stu­dio is court­ing Sean Penn to return from a big screen sab­bat­i­cal by play­ing the other lead in the Depression-era roman­tic tri­an­gle. The novel was a run­away best­seller, and in keep­ing with the eclec­tic out­put of Fox 2000’s Eliz­a­beth Gabler. Gil Net­ter, Erwin Stoff and Andrew Ten­nen­baum are producing.

Pat­tin­son is in talks to play Jacob, a 21 year old who joins a second-rate trav­el­ing cir­cus after he’s trau­ma­tized by the car crash death of both par­ents. He left just before he was to take his vet­eri­nary med­i­cine exams at an Ivy League school, and finds his place in the cir­cus by car­ing for the menagerie of mangy ani­mals. He falls in love with Mar­lena, the show’s star per­former (With­er­spoon), and that’s court­ing dan­ger since she’s mar­ried to the para­noid schiz­o­phrenic ani­mal trainer who runs the show. That is the role that Penn is cir­cling. Deals still have to be made, and putting three pricey stars in a period adult drama is a chal­leng­ing proposition.

Pat­tin­son, who between Twi­light seg­ments starred for Sum­mit in Remem­ber Me, has been cau­tious about choos­ing his next job, but the prospect of star­ring in another well-known lit­er­ary adap­ta­tion, poten­tially along­side two Oscar win­ners, seems a strong move. The hope is to get the pic­ture into pro­duc­tion around June, before he returns for The Twi­light Saga: Break­ing Dawn.

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