If you’re an American who went through the public school system, odds are you read John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” in high school. Or at the very least, you probably watched the 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean. Either way, you’re familiar with the story. Well, now we have another adaptation coming and it has some serious star power behind it.
According to Deadline, Netflix has signed on to produce and distribute a new limited series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, “East of Eden.” And in an interesting circle-of-life moment, it appears that Zoe Kazan is set to write the series. Film fans will probably put the connection together that Kazan is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, the filmmaker who wrote and directed the 1955 version. And perhaps the cherry on top of the whole announcement is the fact that Florence Pugh is set to star in the series.
“East of Eden” is a sprawling story about two American families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and how their paths cross. It’s often described as the most impactful work of Steinbeck, and as mentioned above, is read by just about every kid going through American public schools.
“I fell in love with ‘East of Eden’ when I first read it, in my teens. Since then, adapting Steinbeck’s novel – the great, sprawling, three-generational entirety of it – has been my dream. More than anything, I have wanted to give full expression to the novel’s astonishing, singular antiheroine, Cathy Ames,” Kazan said. “Florence Pugh is our dream Cathy; I can’t imagine a more thrilling actor to bring this character to life. Writing this limited series over the last two years has been the creative highpoint of my life. I hope that with our partners at Netflix, Anonymous Content, and Endeavor Content, we can do justice to this material – and shed new light on it for a twenty-first-century audience.”
Though we know Pugh is attached to star in the series, it’s unclear when production might actually get underway. The report claims that it is still in the early stages of development, so it could be quite a while before we see the Steinback classic on the streaming service.