Universal has optioned the movie rights to Erik Larson’s nonfiction best-seller In the Garden of Beasts for Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman to produce via the duo’s Playtone banner. Hanks is eyeing the project as a potential starring vehicle. The book tells the true tale 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 book, whose full title is In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin , was published in May. This isn’t Larson’s first brush with Hollywood; the author is known for writing The Devil and the White City , another nonfiction tome in development by Leonardo DiCaprio and hi