“99 Homes,” “Chop Shop” and “The White Tiger” director Ramin Bahrani has been set to pen and direct a new TV series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s iconic novel “The Grapes of Wrath”.
The original Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 work unfolds during the Great Depression and follows the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures.
They set out for California along with thousands of others from the Dust Bowl, seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future. John Ford helmed the previous and highly acclaimed 1940 film adaptation which won two Oscars.
Fifth Season is producing the series which follows Bahrani’s prior attempt to adapt a literary classic with HBO’s telemovie take on Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”. That version scored a mixed reception and bore little resemblance to the source material. Bahrani most recently helmed the Apple TV+ series “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”.
No word as to where this new take could end up, be it a network or streamer. This joins another Steinbeck adaptation on the way with Florence Pugh leading a Zoe Kazan-penned TV series take on “East of Eden”.
Source: Deadline
