How New Zealand became Steinbeck’s California for East of Eden

Russell Baillie

Arts & entertainment editor·New Zealand Listener·

19 Sep, 2026 07:04 PM3 mins to read

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Florence Pugh takes on Steinbeck’s most notorious character in East of Eden. Photo / Supplied

When Jane Campion’s Central Otago-shot, Oscar-winning The Power of the Dog was released in 2021, some reviews cited East of Eden as a point of comparison.

Like the 1952 John Steinbeck novel, The Power of the Dog was a story of warring brothers with biblical allusions set on early
20th-century American ranchland. Thomas Savage, the writer of the 1967 book upon which Campion based her movie, cited Steinbeck as an influence.

So, when Netflix came to make a new screen version of East of Eden, which Steinbeck mostly set in his native Salinas Valley in central California, it’s not surprising the production also came to New Zealand. Its locations included Ōamaru’s historic precinct and a farm set not far from where The Power of the Dog was filmed. Streets of historic buildings in Dunedin and Auckland’s Devonport were also used as backdrops.

Among the Steinbeck devotees disappointed the series wasn’t made in California was its Los Angeles-raised writer and showrunner Zoe Kazan. “I felt as if I had been birthed from the soil like a California poppy. And the budget realities were such that we just could not have afforded to do it [there],” she told New York magazine.

Showrunner Zoe Kazan: Captivated by Steinbeck’s novel. Photo / Getty Images

As an actor, Kazan is best known for her movie roles in the likes of The Big Sick, She Said, and 2012 romcom Ruby Sparks, which she also wrote. East of Eden is her first produced television script. She got the gig from knowing the book inside out – she’d first read Steinbeck’s magnum opus when she was 15 and was captivated. Afterwards, she watched the 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean and directed by Elia Kazan – her grandfather, who became a friend of Steinbeck.

That film dealt with only a small final part of the 600-page, 55-chapter novel across a period between the US Civil War and World War I. Predictably, the seven-part series will include much more of the book, though some elements have been excised. Steinbeck wrote about two families. One, the Hamiltons, who were based on Steinbeck’s own forebears, won’t figure much, though Irish actor Ciarán Hinds does play family patriarch Samuel.

The series has as its main focus the evil, manipulative and murderous character of Cathy Ames, a woman who Steinbeck memorably introduced: “I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents.”

Kazan has said she’s not being revisionist in her treatment of the character, played by English star Florence Pugh. Ames wasn’t a central figure in the book, but Kazan wanted her perspective in order to understand why she did such terrible things.

As Pugh told Harper’s Bazaar: “People keep on saying to me, ‘I read the book. She’s a terrible person.’ But I get really arsey about that and I can explain all the awful things that she does. It’s my responsibility to understand the character because they can’t defend themselves.”

The rest of the main cast is a mix of rising stars (who include Joe Anders, the son of Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes) and familiar faces such as Tracy Letts and Martha Plimpton. New Zealand names involved include Tandi Wright, who juggled a supporting character role and work as an intimacy co-ordinator, as well as local industry veterans like cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh, production designer Grant Major, and costume designer Kirsty Cameron.

East of Eden, Netflix, from October 1.

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