Spotlight on Christoph Waltz

You’ve seen him in Inglourious Basterds–for which he won an Academy Award–and he is soon to appear on the big screen again in The Green Hornet. Right now, though,  Christoph Waltz is filming Water For Elephants, starring as August Rosenbluth. He recently spoke at Comic-Con to promote The Green Hornet.

From WaterForElephantsFilm.com:

Waltz told us that despite WFE being one of the most talked-about and media-focused sets right now, creating something of a circus atmosphere in real life, he’s totally enjoying working with Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon.  But his favorite co-star?

“I love working with the elephants,” Waltz said with a smile.

Catch his interview on Oprah.com, skip to 1.66 to hear him talk about WFE!

Now and Then

How do you cast a character that ages 70 years in the course of the film? (If you aren’t Benjamin Button, that is.)

Hal Holbrook

Robert Pattinson

Robert Pattinson plays Jacob Jankowski as a young man and Hal Holbrook also plays Jacob in his nineties. See any resemblance? Read up on Hal Holbrook here.

New Pictures!

See new Pattinson photos here.

New photos from the set also on WaterForElephantsFilm.com!

“Page after page, Stern embraces every outrageous possibility, in lush, cartwheeling sentences that layer deep mystery atop page-turning action atop Borscht Belt humor.”—Washington Post

“A funny, profound and virtuosic work … What awaits is a rare enchantment.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Laugh-out-loud funny … A wonderfull entertaining, inventive new novel that evokes Amy Bloom, Michael Chabon and Isaac Bashevis Singer.”–Heller McAlpin, NPR

“Stern elevates his virtuoso storytelling and whirling magical satire to cosmic heights in this lovingly irreverent and revelatory novel of the timeless conflict between the sacred and the profane, and the perpetual search for home and meaning.”—Booklist, starred review

News from the set!

What’s 42 years old, 8 feet 8 inches tall, weighs in at 9,000 pounds, and gets to touch Robert Pattinson?

Tai, the adorable Asian elephant, plays Rosie in the film. It’s quite a big job; after all, it is Water for ELEPHANTS. She hails from Have Trunk Will Travel Ranch, an elephant haven and educational center in Perris, CA. Tai has a 48 foot trailer on the set and gets plenty of exercise, rest, and snacks, as well as tons of love and attention from the cast and crew. To read more about Tai, check out WaterForElephantsFilm.com.

Lights, Camera…Trains!

It’s not so common to see passenger trains running on tracks anymore, so what about movies that feature working, vintage locomotives? That’s an awfully big prop. Enter Fillmore & Western Railway Co. This Southern California-based operation has provided the trains, trestles, bridges, and stations for over 300 film, television, and commercial productions. Now they’ve been enlisted by the Water For Elephants filmmakers for the Benzini Circus train! Read more in this LA Times article.

Filmore & Western's Benzini circus train!

Behind The Circus

On a Water For Elephants film blog, I found this Glossary of Circus Slang & Lingo. Familiarize yourself with hippodromes and Jake Legs and get into the circus spirit!

–Susannah

News from the set!

The Benzini Brothers Circus Tent

Robert Pattinson runs holding Queenie while filming "The Stampede" scene

They’re wrapping the circus set in Piru, CA!

Director Francis Lawrence is keeping fans up to date via his Twitter account, @hibbits. On taking down the Big Top: “Okay… Collapsing our tents was probably one of the coolest things we’ve done.”

Down comes the Big Top.

Never fear, this is just one location, not the end of Water For Elephants Movie News. We can’t wait to find out what scenes they’ll be filming next!

Still haven’t read the book? Order now or pick one up at your local bookshop.

1. Describe your new book in one sentence.

In Taos, New Mexico, the ghost of an Apache medicine-woman tells the story of her grandson, Mister Romero, who survives a rough and wild childhood with his best friend, Tomas, and ultimately realizes that they love the same woman.

2. Where do you do your best writing?

At my desk, which is an old door with many layers of peeling paint bought from the Santa Fe flea market, set on hand-carved douglass fir legs, screwed together as best I could at the time.  I like to write in a small room, facing a wall.



3. What is your motto or maxim?

Kill your darlings.

4. Do you have any secret skills (besides writing, of course?)

Like Jésus and Cisco Cisneros in The Ghost of Milagro Creek, I have prehensile toes.  I can’t wield a lug wrench like Jésus or play a musical instrument with my toes, other than the piano, but I can pick up a pencil and write my name.

5. Describe the plot of the first story you remember writing. “Why I Love Jesus,” a story about a thirteen year old girl who attends a Southern Baptist youth retreat and does not get saved.

6.  If you had to change professions, and needed no credentials, what would you do?  I’d teach literacy to adults by writing their life stories and reading them back to them, word by word.

7.  Which band would you like to have follow you around, playing the soundtrack to your life? No band for me, just Johnny Cash.

8.   Where do you hope to catch people reading your new book?

On Indian Reservations and in universities around the world.

9.  What is your all-time-absolute-favorite book?

The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck.

10.  What books have you read recently that you’d recommend?

A Pearl in the Storm, by Tori Murden McClure, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga, The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy, Oliver Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout, When Things Fall Apart, by Pema Chodron, Booklife, by Jeff Vandermeer

Excerpt From Ghost of Milagro Creek

Because the closest I care to get to a circus is Robert Pattinson’s trailer.

Water For Elephants: Movie News

The buzz surrounding the Water For Elephants film has people asking “Wait a minute–can Robert Pattinson survive without his Edward Cullen alter ego?” In the wake of the “Twilight: Eclipse” premiere, even hardcore fan pages are starting to post WFE movie updates–and we couldn’t be more pleased!

The FAB Life talks about Rob’s shot at the Oscar.

As does Twilightish.

And EdwardAndBella.net seems to have some pretty exclusive set photos.

ON THE SET

(From our friends at WaterForElephantsFilm.com)

In a recent interview, Robert Pattinson gave kudos to the Set Soldiers that have been camping out at sets in Piru, Fillmore and Los Angeles, California. Rob was asked a series of questions, but read the props he gave to the Set Soldiers!

The funniest experience?
“It was recently. It happened while I was filming ‘Water for Elephants’ in which my partner is Reese Witherspoon. We had a scene with elephants but there were so many paparazzi around that it was scaring the animals and it was impossible to film. Out of the blue, fans, that were waiting for autographs, had enough and circled around the paparazzi. Teens made big guys run away. It was unreal! I was pleased.”

NEW PHOTOS!

While visiting WaterForElephantsFilm.com, check out the new photos from the set. Witherspoon and Pattinson dancing…and their on-screen kiss!

Still haven’t read the book? Order Now or pick one up at your local bookshop.

Mister and Tomás, best friends until their late teens, both fall for Rocky, a gringa of some mystery, a girl Tomás takes for himself. But in a moment of despair, a pledge between the young men leads to murder. When Ignacia falls silent, police reports, witness statements, and caseworker interviews draw an electrifying portrait of a troubled community and of the vulnerable players in this mounting tragedy. Set in a terrain that becomes a character in its own right, The Ghost of Milagro Creek brilliantly illuminates this hidden corner of American society.

Watch the book trailer.

For more trailers of Algonquin titles, as well as author interviews and book extras, visit our YouTube channel: Algonquin Books TV.

The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern

The July 3rd issue of The New York Times Book Review gave a full page rave for The Frozen Rabbi:

“Tradition is too modest a word for the extraordinary story behind the icebound rabbi’s journey, across several countries and a century of time … The adventure, recounted by Stern with manic virtuosity, starts in a small Polish village, where Rabbi Eliezer is so blissed out during a pond-side meditation that he doesn’t notice a storm lifting the waters around him. In one of the effortless liberties the master fabulist Stern takes with reality, the rabbi survives underwater until winter comes and he’s encased in ice. This all happens before page 7, testament to how rapidly this book chews through plot, characters, decades and continents. The voracious pace lets Stern spill a hundred years of vivid Jewish history onto the page. But it doesn’t keep him from revealing, with depth and subtlety, the yearning and agony of all the characters who are lucky (or unlucky) enough to have their fates lashed to that of the frozen rabbi … Stern’s intimacy with Jewish mysticism does not seem to come from Internet research. He writes with piercing zeal about religious concepts that are, by their very definition, impossible to describe—impossible, perhaps, even to understand … Yet Stern brings the esoteric ideas handily to life and lodges them, often hilariously, in the unlikely body of Bernie Karp, holy teenager of Memphis … Along with the difficult questions of just what is lost when assimilation is gained, Stern also raises the hope that even the most unwitting among us cannot fully escape the passions of our ancestors.”

Read the rest of Ben Marcus’s review HERE.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

No surprise, but this best-selling novel clocked in at #4 on the Most Wanted list of “The Year’s Page-Turners.” Check out the other “Most Wanted” books, as well as TV shows, films, albums, and magazines HERE.