Robert Pattinson as Water for Elephants' Jacob

I really hope that they cast Natalie Portman for this movie instead of Reese Witherspoon there'd be MORE CHEMISTRY. UGH. According to Coventry Telegraph,

TWILIGHT heartthrob Robert Pattinson is in talks to star in Great Depression drama Water for Elephants, adapted from Sara Gruen's best-selling historical romance novel.

Sean Penn is also being approached to appear in the Fox 2000 project, which will be directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine, I Am Legend) and has been scripted by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, The Bridges of Madison County, The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Horse Whisperer).

Reese Witherspoon has already been cast in the film, reports Deadline Hollywood and Variety.

Pattinson, aged 23, would play Jacob Jankowski, a veterinary student who quits college when his parents die in a car crash.

He joins the Benzini Brothers' Most Spectacular Show on Earth where he cares for the circus animals, but trouble starts when he falls in love with horseback performer Marlena (Witherspoon) who is married to head animal trainer August (Penn).

Filming is set to start in June, before Pattinson has to begin work in on the fourth Twilight film, Breaking Dawn.

Shooting on Breaking Dawn is expected to begin in the autumn. Pattinson and franchise co-stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner are all signed for the film.

A decision on whether it will be one or two movies won't be made until screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg hands in her story treatment. New Moon director Chris Weitz is unlikely to return and the studio is now drawing up a list of possible directors.

Producer Wyck Godfrey told the LA Times: "The issue [of whether there will be one or two movies] is not going to be resolved until we get the full treatment and see whether it's organic. If it's not organic, I don't think it will be done, and if it is, it will be.

"It really has to do with how much level of detail from the books there is, with all of these new vampires that appear in Breaking Dawn, the whole section about Jacob... It's a very long single movie if it does become a single movie.

"We're just focused on the treatment and getting that right. At that point, we're going to see who's available and who's appropriate.

"It's such a complicated book because you have the emotions and the intensity of the love story - so you need somebody who's just a wonderful director of actors - and yet it's really complicated from an action and visual effects standpoint. They've got to have both tools in their kit."

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