Zoe Kazan is in her Jason Reitman era, which is to say she’s circling back onto a project inextricable from her nepotistic origins after having already established herself as an artist outside the family name. According to Varietythe streamer has formally given the greenlight to Kazan’s series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel East Of Edenwhich she will co-write and co-showrun with Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, Vikings: Valhalla). The Academy Award-nominated 1955 film, which marked the first lead role played by James Dean, was directed by Zoe’s grandfather Elia Kazan.
“Kazan” is far from the only famous name attached to this buzzy adaptation. Florence Pugh, who is also on board as an executive producer, signed on to play Cathy way back in 2022 when the show was still in development. She’s now joined by Christopher Abbott (Girls, Poor Things) who will play Adam, and Mike Faist as Charles, the role for which Dean won his first posthumous Oscar nomination. Hoon Lee (See) will play Lee. Kazan previously said her desire with the adaptation was to “give full expression to the novel’s astonishing, singular antiheroine, Cathy Ames.” Accordingly, Netflix’s synopsis describes the limited series as following “the multi-generational Trask family saga explored from the perspective of the standout female character Cathy Ames.”
“In the process of bringing this family saga to life, the resonance of my own familial connection to the material has not been lost on me,” Kazan said in a statement. “But it is Steinbeck’s writing—personal, shocking, profound and free—that has kept me enthralled to East of Eden since I first read the book as a young teen. Working on this has been the greatest joy, and I am thrilled by the cast and crew we are assembling—and deeply grateful to Netflix, Fifth Season and Anonymous Content for their support.”
