East of Eden is headed to the big screen again, with Florence Pugh set to star in the Netflix series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, Variety reports.
Steinbeck’s book, published in 1952 by Viking, follows the Hamiltons and the Trasks, two intertwined families in California’s Salinas Valley in the early 20th century.
The Netflix adaptation will be written by Zoe Kazan, the actor known for her roles in films including The Big Sick and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Kazan’s grandfather Elia Kazan directed the 1955 film adaptation of East of Eden starring James Dean and Julie Harris; the movie was nominated for four Oscars, and is considered a classic of mid-20th-century American cinema.
Pugh, an Oscar nominee for Little Women, will star in the Netflix adaptation alongside Christopher Abbott (Catch-22, Girls), Mike Faist (West Side Story, Challengers), and Hoon Lee (Banshee, Bosch). Kazan will serve as executive producer and showrunner with Jeb Stuart.
Kazan shared news of the adaptation on the social platform X, writing, “this has been the work of my last four years and, in some ways, my life. extremely grateful to netflix, fifth season, and anonymous content--and to [Florence Pugh], who has given this project so much already.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
