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EarlyWord posted the trailer to the theatrical adaptation of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, due in theaters in April 2011. After I watched it, I thought to myself, could Water for Elephants be the next Titanic?

My book group discussed Water for Elephants two years ago, and when I read it I did not think of the film Titanic. For one, Titanic is not based on a book. And yet, in watching the trailer, I was struck by the parallels in the two stories and the themes that they share.

For one, both stories are told in flashbacks in which an older character tells the story of their youth to a listener in the present. In both cases, their stories are larger-than-life and seemingly improbable. Their stories are, in essence, made for the movies–full of bravado, romance, intrigue and moments of skin-of-their-teeth survival.

Both stories romanticize America’s past by delivering love stories that transcend boundaries while eschewing perfect endings, leaving a bittersweet taste, albeit in a Hollywood way. Both stories are being performed by the hot actors of the day, Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson to Titanic’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

It is hard to predict what might be a hit in the theater these days, especially when it comes to novel adaptations (although if The Help isn’t a smash, with so many book groups and weeks on bestseller lists behind it, I will be shocked), but I just have a feeling that Water for Elephants could be the next big thing.

Anyone else willing to cast their prediction?

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 18th, 2010 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Fiction, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.