Here’s an incentive to get kids to read John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, (an Oprah Book Club selection). It is set for a film adaptation by The Hunger Games team, director Gary Ross and star Jennifer Lawrence. Evidently Ross has learned how well series can work; according to Deadline, he plans to divide the story into two films.

Lawrence will play the manipulative mother of feuding twin sons, Caleb and Aron. Jo Van Fleet won an Oscar for that role in Elia Kazan’s 1955 classic adaptation. It was a supporting role, since Kazan’s version focuses on the last section of the book, in which her character is in the background. With Lawrence as star, that character will undoubtedly have a larger role.

Also in the works is a new adaptation  of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath headed by Steven Spielberg.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 26th, 2013 at 8:18 am and is filed under Books & Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.