THR reports that Universal Pictures has optioned the rights to Erik Larson’s nonfiction best-seller ‘In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin,’ with Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman set to produce via their Playtone banner.
Larson’s book, published earlier this year, tells the true tale of William Dodd, a professor from Chicago who became the United States ambassador to Berlin in 1933. Dodd and his family were initially oblivious to the mounting brutality surrounding them in Nazi Germany. His vivacious socialite daughter Martha even had numerous affairs with the city's elite, among which was Rudolph Diels, first chief of the Gestapo.
According to THR, Hanks is eyeing the project as a potential starring vehicle. There is currently no writer or director attached.