Film rights to “
Water for Elephants,” Sara Gruen’s Depression-era circus novel that has climbed atop the paperback bestseller lists, have been optioned by Andrew R. Tennenbaum, a producer of “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
Story follows Jacob Jankowski, who is about to take his final exams in veterinary medicine at Cornell when his parents are killed in a car accident. He drops out and joins Benzini Brothers, a second-rate traveling circus trying to survive during the Depression.