Florence Pugh is Set To Star in a Series Adaptation of John Steinbeck’s EAST OF EDEN For Netflix
Netflix is developing a series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel East of Eden and Florence Pugh is set to star in it. There’s no word on who she will be playing, but there’s no doubt it will be a lead role.
The epic story is set in California’s Salinas Valley over a period that stretches from the Civil War to the end of World War I. It’s a sprawling and often brutal story that “follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.”
Adam Trask came to California from the East “to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.”
The limited series adaptation will explore “the novel’s themes of trauma and repair; love and betrayal; duty and free will. The series will sketch an intimate portrait of the Trask family against the backdrop of huge historical forces — or, as Steinbeck put it, ‘the story of my country and the story of me.’”
The limited series is being written and executive produced by Zoe Kazan, whose grandfather, Elia Kazan, helmed the 1955 film adaptation of Steinbeck’s novel.
Kazan said in a statement: “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. 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 21st century audience.”
Source: Deadline