Florence Pugh has been keeping herself lately, up to and including aggressively making out with Harry Styles in Don’t Worry Darling. She will appear in the next Dune installment, has a starring role in an upcoming Christopher Nolan film, and most importantly, she will voice Goldilocks in the upcoming Puss In Boots sequel. Now, she has been cast in her next project: a Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, East Of Eden.
According to Deadline, the adaptation will be a limited series where Pugh will both star and co-produce, alongside Zoe Kazan, who will pen the series. The story, which was first published in 1952, features a look at two American families throughout the early twentieth century. It’s often regarded as Steinbeck’s best work.
Kazan has familial ties to the story: her grandfather Elia Kazan adapted the novel into a film for Warner Bros. in 1955, which became James Dean’s first major screen role. Of the film, Kazan said:
I fell in love with East of Eden when I first read it, in my teens. 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. I hope that with our partners at Netflix, Anonymous Content, and Endeavor Content, we can do justice to this material – and shed new light on it for a twenty-first century audience.
Pugh is set to play Cathy Ames, the main antagonist, who is described as a “Psycho Monster.” So that should be good. No director has been attached to the project yet, though Netflix is reportedly in the middle of casting the rest of the ensemble. So Harry Styles could still be cast if he is up for it!