Tom Hanks to Star in WWII Hitler Drama - IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS
Tom Hanks is set to produce and possibly star in a new film called In the Garden of Beasts that's being set up at Universal Pictures. The studio acquired the movie rights to the Erik Larson nonfiction novel, which is called In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin. This is yet another World War II project that Hanks has attached himself to. I am a huge fan of Hanks, the guy is just so damn cool and he always gets involved with solid films. This one sounds like it could be great. The film is set during Hitler’s rise to power.
The film is based on the true story of William Dodd, "the United States' reluctant and mild-mannered ambassador to Berlin in 1933, and his daughter Martha, a vivacious socialite who had romantic affairs with a Gestapo official and a Soviet spy. Dodd and his family at first naively navigated life in Nazi Germany (Dodd’s daughter was excited when Hitler kissed her hand) but they slowly gained awareness of the mounting brutality around them."
The movie sounds like it will be pretty damn intriguing story. After reading the description of the book that I posted below, I want to pick up the book and read it. I also think this is a great project for Hanks to take on. The guy is a great actor and producer and this seems like it would be a great movie for him to star in. I hope he ends up taking it on. What do you think?
Here's a detialed description of the book:
The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance--and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.
Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.