'Basterd' Christoph Waltz To Play Circus Nazi

[WyldeMan45]

Deadline

Hollywood is always looking for great villains. Now I’m told that Christoph Waltz, a frontrunner in the Best Supporting Actor race for his portrayal of the charmingly sadistic Col Hans Landa, will make a deal to star with Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants, the Richard LaGravanese-scripted adaptation of the Sara Gruen novel for Fox 2000. Francis Lawrence is directing. The role at first appeared to belong to Sean Penn who's been on a self-imposed big screen sabbatical, but the deal went south. Instead, Waltz will play the heavy in the Depression Era romantic triangle involving a veterinary medicine student (Pattinson) who joins a 2nd-rate travelling circus and falls for the star performer (Witherspoon). Waltz will play her husband, a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer who is as mean to his wife as he is to the circus creatures. Gil Netter, Erwin Stoff and Andrew Tennenbaum are producing.

Waltz was a journeyman German TV actor when Quentin Tarantino cast him to play Col. Hans Landa, the charmingly sadistic and manipulative Nazi officer. It got him a Hollywood agent at ICM, and the chance to make Hollywood films. Pending a deal, this would be Waltz’s second studio role. He played the villain opposite Seth Rogen in The Green Hornet for Columbia Pictures.

I love the cast, but for as much fun as I have watching the brutal beatings and murders of humans, animals is where I draw the line. There is nothing funny about the torture and killing of animals, and this just sounds like a very hard film to watch.........Not to mention I don't want to see Reese Witherspoon getting beaten either.

[Idioteque...]

Pattinson ruins everything. It's like they have no young actors anymore. Go get Ryan Gosling.

[sfmarine]

This one sounds interesting but I am very impressed with Waltz so I'd go see it. I'm also a huge fan of Reese.

[WyldeMan45]

Originally Posted by Idioteque...

Pattinson ruins everything. It's like they have no young actors anymore. Go get Ryan Gosling.

Pattison is signing on to a lot of movies, one of which "Unbound" that sounds really good to me. What have you seen him in? I've never actually seen anything he's been in besides the Twilight commercials, so I have no idea if he can act. Kristen Stewart is in them and she's been pretty good in everything I've seen her in.

[Idioteque...]

Originally Posted by WyldeMan45

Pattison is signing on to a lot of movies, one of which "Unbound" that sounds really good to me. What have you seen him in? I've never actually seen anything he's been in besides the Twilight commercials, so I have no idea if he can act. Kristen Stewart is in them and she's been pretty good in everything I've seen her in.

Stewart's pretty awful. I watched clips from his new movie, Cooper is acting circles around this kid. She's emotionless.

[WyldeMan45]

Originally Posted by Idioteque...

Stewart's pretty awful. I watched clips from his new movie, Cooper is acting circles around this kid. She's emotionless.

Kristen, has been getting rave reviews from both her Sundance films for her acting. I can't explain why but I just find something very sexy about her, and she's not my usual type at all.

Book Summary:

When his parents are killed in a traffic accident, 23 year-old Jacob Jankowski hops a train after walking out on his final exams at Cornell, where he had hoped to earn a veterinary degree. The train turns out to be a circus train, and since it's the Depression, when someone with a vet's skills can attach himself to a circus if he's lucky, Jacob soon finds himself involved with the animal acts—specifically with the beautiful young Marlena, the horse rider, and her husband, August. Jacob falls for Marlena immediately, and the ensuing triangle is at the center of this novel, which follows the circus across the states. Jacob learns the ins and outs of circus life, in this case under the rule of the treacherous Uncle Al, who cheats the workers and deals roughly with patrons who complain about blatant false advertising and rip-off exhibits. Jacob and Marlena are attracted to each other, but their relationship is fairly innocent until it becomes clear that August is not merely jealous but dangerously mentally deranged. Old-fashioned and endearing, this is an enjoyable, fast-paced story told by the older Jacob, now in his nineties in a nursing home.