Among the many upcoming series and movies arriving on Netflix this fall, among the most anticipated in “East of Eden.”
On Wednesday, September 2, the streamer unveiled its first look at the limited series, unveiling its first trailer for director Zoe Kazan’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel.
A Sweeping Saga
“East of Eden” was first brought to the screen in 1955, with a cast including James Dean, Julie Harris and Raymond Massey.
“I believe there are monsters born in this world to human parents,” a voiceover states in the opening of the just-released trailer. “A monster is a variation from the accepted normal. A child may be born perfect, but without kindness or conscience,” the voiceover continues, paraphrasing Steinbeck’s ruminations on the nature of good and evil.
“This limited series spans generations of the Trask family … and Florence Pugh as the ultimate antihero, Cathy Ames,” notes Netflix.
‘Epic and Intimate’
Netflix“The thing that was really important to me was to stay rooted in the text of the book when it came to exploring who Cathy is,” Kazan tells Tudum of her Netflix series. “Basically everything that’s in the series has at least a root in the book.”
The trailer emphasizes the sweeping scope of the limited series, offering glimpses of three generations of the Trask family, from stern patriarch Cyrus (Tracy Letts), to his sons Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Charles (Mike Faist), to Adam’s sons Aron (Joe Anders) and Cal (Joseph Zada).
The Trasks’ story becomes inextricably intertwined with Cathy’s, spanning from the aftermath of the Civil War to the first days of World War I.
As Kazan explained, she not only used Steinbeck’s book as her source material, but went even deeper than that by utilizing the author’s personal journals.
“There’s this incredible resource that I used, which is that Steinbeck wrote longhand in a big journal,” Kazan explains. “On the right-hand side of the journal, he would write his pages for the day of the book, and then on the left-hand side, he would write letters to his editor.”
She added: “You can sort of see where his intentions were. He said very early in his writing process, ‘It will actually be two books, the story of my country and the story of me.’ It needs to be epic and intimate.”
A Story Spanning Decades
Netflix“The series spans decades in the lives of Cathy and the Trask family, and is bookended by the American Civil War and World War I. Over the years, their paths intersect with people like Samuel Hamilton (Ciarán Hinds), an Irishman who made his way to California where he raised a family and got to know the land, and Lee (Hoon Lee), a Chinese American whose intellect is surpassed only by his ability to give care to those who need it most, and Faye (Martha Plimpton), a brothel owner whose open heart might lead to her downfall,” states Netflix in its synopsis.
“It’s a portrait of one family, but also of a society that is rapidly changing, in which men and women must navigate difficult decisions,” the synopsis concludes, “and come face-to-face with the reality that, ultimately, you are what you choose.”
“East of Eden” makes its debut October 1 on Netflix.
