Florence Pugh to Star in East of Eden Limited Series Adaptation at Netflix
Florence Pugh is breathing new life into another classic novel: The Little Women star is set to headline Netflix‘s adaptation of East of Eden, our sister site Deadline reports.
The limited series, currently in early development at the streamer, will be written and executive-produced by actress/writer Zoe Kazan. (Her grandfather Elia Kazan directed the original 1955 film version.) Based on the John Steinbeck novel, East of Eden follows several generations of the Trask family — and the movie version gave a young James Dean his first major screen role. Pugh will play Cathy Ames, the role played by Jo Van Fleet in the film.
“I fell in love with East of Eden when I first read it, in my teens,” Zoe Kazan said in a statement. “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.”
Pugh is best known to Marvel fans as sister Yelena Belova in last year’s Black Widow, a role she reprised in the Disney+ series Hawkeye. Her other film credits include Midsommar and Little Women, which earned Pugh an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. She also costarred with Alexander Skarsgard in the AMC spy thriller The Little Drummer Girl.
It will be hard to top the mini–series with Jane Seymour. She was brilliant. Also great was Bruce Boxleitner and Soon Tek Oh.
The irony is, the best parts of the book is all but excised in the Dean version. It’s a shame that people think about the Dean film when they think about East of Eden. The mini-series was far superior and presented a complete story with a masterful lead villain in Catherine Aames
I LOVE this! East of Eden has been a favorite of mine since I was 15. While there have been other versions of this book brought to life, it certainly has not been done in awhile. Florence is a phenomenal actress that has proven she can bring anytime period to life! I can’t wait for this series!!!