How do you adapt East of Eden for screen?

How do you begin breaking down a 600-page American epic to bring it to the screen? How did Florence Pugh capture the essence of the central character Cathy? How did John Steinbeck’s secret writing journals help the screenwriters? And what should you read next if you loved reading - or watching - East of Eden?

We kick off our next series of Ask Penguin with a special episode dedicated to Netflix’s lavish new period drama, East of Eden, adapted from John Steinbeck’s epic American family saga. Rhianna Dhillon is joined by co-showrunner, writer and executive producer Zoe Kazan, and co-showrunner and executive producer Jeb Stuart, to discuss their vision for bringing the book to life on screen.

East of Eden is now available on Netflix

Audiobook is extracted from: Here

Discover all the books mentioned in this episode here

About the guests

Zoe Kazan is an American actress and writer. She has acted in films such as The Savages, Revolutionary Road, and It's Complicated.

She also starred in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

Jeb Stuart is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer, known for writing blockbuster action films such as Die Hard (1988) and The Fugitive (1993), and creating the Netflix television series