Premise: (from IMDB) A veterinary student abandons his studies after his parents are killed and joins a traveling circus as their vet.
About: One of the many projects with Robert Pattinson onboard. We can’t get enough of him. We need more Robert Pattinson! Pattinson joins his first worthy leading lady, Reese Witherspoon, as she'll be playing the part of Marlena. Francis Lawrence, director of “I Am Legend” and “Constantine” will helm the flick. Richard LaGravenese , who adapted this best-selling novel, has been around for a long time, penning such flicks as The Ref, The Bridges of Madison Square County, and The Fischer King (for which he was nominated). Water For Elephants finished with 5 votes on the 2009 Black List.
Writer: Richard LaGravenese (adapted from the novel by Sara Gruen)
Details: 126 pages (second draft revised – April 16, 2009)
I bought this book a long time ago for one reason and one reason only. To have a reason to talk to women on planes! It’s almost as if the modern flying female comes equipped with Water For Elephants, and for that reason, you have to be prepared. There’s no better opening line than when a young lady has a book on her lap and you pull out of your carry-on…the exact same book! Hold it up. Offer a little smile. “We’re in this together.” Assuming she doesn’t get weirded out, you’re totally in. Unfortunately I always get stuck next to large snoring men and therefore have never had the chance to use my Water For Elephants pick-up line. The irony in all this, of course, is that I’ve never read the damn thing. Books aren’t like scripts. It takes a much larger commitment to read a book, and in the time it takes to finish a script, you may have just realized that you don’t like the book you’re reading, and have therefore wasted 2 hours of your life. This is a long-winded way of saying, I figured it was time to read Water For Elephants. But hell if I was going to read the book when I had the abridged script version right there on my hard drive. In all honesty, I wasn't expecting to like it. Circuses are fascinating, but for whatever reason they haven't panned out onscreen (at least in my opinion). So I opened the first page with a ho-hum, let’s get this over with attitude.
And wouldn’t you know it. I was swept away.
Water For Elephants tells the story of Jacob Jankowski, a sprite 93 when we meet him. Jacob’s escaped from the local old folks' home because he heard there was a circus in town. Of course, these modern doodads they call "circuses" are nothing like the ancient traveling titans of yesteryear, and we can see the disappointment in Jacob's eyes when he watches the methodical business-like approach the circus workers put into their jobs. They don’t have the connection to the craft. It isn't - we gleam from Jacob's eyes - "like it used to be."
When a few workers spot this old fart gumming up their preparation, they call in the authorities. But then Charlie, the circus manager, overhears Jacob mention something about “Benzini Bros.” His ears perk up. Benzini Bros. operated back in the 1930s and was famous for one thing - a historic deadly stampede. Charlie’s only heard this story through secondhand rumors. And here, maybe, supposedly, if this old man is telling the truth, he’s going to get a first hand account of what really happened that day. And so begins Jacob Jankowski's tale.
As a 22 year old in the 30s, Jacob had everything a young man could possibly desire. His two loving parents were veterinarians and he’d just graduated from an Ivy-League school. Despite it being the Depression, he had the pick of any job he pleased. And then, in an unexpected tragedy, his parents died in a car accident. The confused Jacob's world comes crashing down on him. Unsure what to do or where to go, he runs. He doesn't care where. As long as it's away. Figuring he'll hitch a train ride to somewhere far away from here, Jacob leaps into a random boxcar, prepared for a long journey. But he quickly realizes this isn't just any train. This is The Benzini Bros. Traveling Circus.
Jacob is instantly taken by the atmosphere and wants in. Even though this means working as a glorified janitor, cleaning up shit and feeding animals, Jacob's game. But when Uncle August, the charismatic owner of the show who has a streak darker than the Wicked Witch of the West, catches wind that he has an ivy-league veterinarian on board, he takes Jacob under his wing, giving him access to the spoils of the circus, including all the best animals and all the best acts. Most prominent among them, his devastatingly beautiful wife Marlena, whose horse act is the star of the show. Jacob falls instantly in love.
Soonafter, Jacob experiences the wonders of the circus, meeting all the crazy characters, the dwarfs, the fire-breathers, the fat ladies. Circuses are their own little universes, and Jacob becomes infatuated with that universe. But when Marlena’s star horse has to be put down, August loses his main act, and if they don’t come up with something to replace it soon, they, like the many other circuses of the Depression era, will go under. Luckily, they come across remnants of one of these belly-up productions, and get their hands on a giant but old "bull elephant" named Rosie. August has always wanted an elephant act to compete with the bigger circuses, and now, finally, he has one.
But Rosie is as stubborn as they get, refusing to perform even the most basic of tricks, and August, who we begin to realize has an inner rage that rivals Satan himself, takes his frustration out on her nightly, beating the helpless animal so severely, it's a miracle she wakes up in the morning. It is Jacob’s job, after the pounding is over, to go in and treat the wounds, to apologize to Rosie, to promise her he'll prevent it from happening again. In the process, he develops a deep friendship with her.
In the meantime, Jacob finds himself craving more of Marlena. The two steal moments together here and there, but as you’d expect, there are no secrets in a traveling circus. The rumors begin to fly. His friends try and stop him. But Jacob is so deeply in love that logic is no longer a part of his vocabulary. He can’t help himself. It is only when August begins to suspect that something is amiss that Jacob backs off. And even then, he still covets this beauty.
August figures out quickly that the way to stop Jacob isn’t through Jacob, it’s through the things he loves. So it is Rosie who bears the brunt of Jacob’s mistakes, her beatings becoming more violent, more severe. This cycle of violence propels us towards an inevitable showdown with all three characters and a climax that occurs during that historic stampede Charlie was so anxious to learn about. It is an unforgettable ending to an unforgettable story - the kind of thing that movies were made for.
This script rocked me. I mean it was just so good. I haven’t read characters this rich or alive since The Brigands of Rattleborge. We feel Jacob’s pain and desperation after losing his parents. We feel Marlena’s perception of her worthlessness. We feel the pure evil inside of August. And yet each of these characters has an additional, almost opposite, layer that provides a depth we don't usually see in screenplays. Jacob’s purity is undermined by his attempts to lure a taken woman. Marlena loves August just as much as she hates him. And August plays the victim just as aggressively as he plays the dictator. These characters are so wonderfully crafted, they should be used in a screenwriting course.
And just from a story perspective, there are so many things that are done right. We have the undercurrent of conflict that comes from two lovers who know they can't be together. We have a bad guy we hate more than our own demons and yet we can’t wait to see what he'll do next. We have a mysterious tragedy hinted at early, which drives our curiosity in how the story ends. We have what could be, if done correctly, one of the most memorable finales ever put to film. And we have one of the most satisfying conclusions to a villain's storyline I’ve ever read. All of this while being steeped in the details of a truly magnificent and fascinating world. The imagination here…the amount of research that went into this…it just bleeds authenticity. If anyone wants to know how to incorporate details that distinguish and authenticate your script and yet keep the story moving, read this now.
And I mean August. Jesus. This guy. He’s like Daniel Day Lewis’ character from Gangs of New York, but BETTER, because he has more to work with. His motivations are clearer and he has a dynamic to him that that other character just doesn't have. Whichever actor lands this role is going to have a shot at an Oscar. I mean, I don’t know much about Francis Lawrence other than that he has a cool way of shooting movies, but assuming he does a passable job, this character can become one of the greatest of all time.
Edit: Holy shit. I just found out Christoph Waltz is playing the part of August. Fucking bank it. The Oscar again goes to Christoph Walz in 2011!
I don’t really know what else to say. All I can say is, Robert Pattinson is the luckiest bastard in the world for getting a shot to be in this movie. His only job will be not screwing it up. Because the material is better than anything he’s done before and probably anything he'll do after.
Script link: No link but this is a 2009 Black List script so if you had the link to them from last year, you should be able to find it there. If you don't have it, ask someone in the comments and I'm sure they'll be able to get the link.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[x] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: One of the reasons books are adapted into movies is because there’s a wealth of backstory inherent in a book that provides the characters and story a depth that spec screenplays just can't match. I read so many amateur scripts where characters don’t seem to have any pasts at all. Where the worlds don’t go back any further than the page they're written on. It’s as if the writer only knows what they’ve written and nothing more. But these characters you write, they go to sleep after you stop writing them. They experienced an entire life before you introduced us to them. They have hopes. They have fears. They have things they do between scenes. They have friends and interests outside of the friends and interests you’ve shown us. Writers adapting books can draw on this material because it’s already been laid out for them. But for you, the spec writer who doesn’t have that luxury, you have to create all that backstory yourself. Because if you don’t, you’ll never achieve the rich level of depth that scripts like Water For Elephants have. And believe me, this is what you’re being compared to. So flesh out that world. If I ask you, where did your character go to college, you better know the answer. If I ask you where does your character hope to be in five years, you better be able to tell me. Cause that’s how you create fully-fleshed out characters and fully-fleshed out worlds – by knowing everything about your universe.
scriptshadow via spunk-ransom
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