Netflix is developing a new limited series based on John Steinbeck’s epic novel East of Eden. Although still in very early development, Florence Pugh is attached to star, according to Deadline, with Netflix landing the series after a major bidding war.
Zoe Kazan will write the series as well as executive producing. She follows in the footsteps of her grandfather, the legendary director Elia Kazan, who brought the book to the screen in 1955. He cast James Dean as Cal Trask, the actor’s first film role, propelling him to stardom.
“I fell in love with East of Eden when I first read it, in my teens,” Kazan was reported as saying in Deadline. “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.”
Author and Nobel Prize winner Steinbeck’s novel was published in 1952. Regarded by the author as his magnum opus, the story follows the interwoven lives of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, in California between the American Civil War and the end of World War I.
Steinback describes Cathy, the wife of the main protagonist Adam Trask, as a “psychic monster” and having a “malformed soul” - an exciting role to see Pugh take on.
English actor Pugh shot to worldwide fame in 2019 with starring roles in Midsommar and Little Women, and has been incredibly busy ever since. Most recently she’s starred in Marvel’s Black Widow opposite Scarlett Johansson, and has three films coming out this year: Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling with Harry Styles, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Wonder by Lib Wright.
Zoe Kazan started her career as an actor, with parts in Me and Orson Welles, It’s Complicated and Revolutionary Road, as well as a number of roles on stage - including in Off-Broadways shows Love Love Love and When We Were Young and Unafraid.
As well as performing, she wrote After the Blast which was staged at the Lincoln Center in 2017, and was the co-writer and executive producer of partner Paul Dano’s 2018 directorial debut Wildlife, based on the novel by Richard Ford. But the upcoming East of Eden series will be Kazan’s first major TV writing credit.
