{"id":605764,"date":"2026-09-20T00:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T00:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605764\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T00:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T00:34:12","slug":"how-new-zealand-became-steinbecks-california-for-east-of-eden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605764\/","title":{"rendered":"How New Zealand became Steinbeck\u2019s California for East of Eden"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RussellRussell Baillie<\/a><\/p>\n

Arts & entertainment editor\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7<\/p>\n

19 Sep, 2026 07:04 PM3 mins to read<\/p>\n

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Florence Pugh takes on Steinbeck\u2019s most notorious character in East of Eden. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

When Jane Campion\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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

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\u2019s not surprising the production also came to New Zealand. Its locations included \u014camaru\u2019s 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\u2019s Devonport were also used as backdrops.<\/p>\n

Among the Steinbeck devotees disappointed the series wasn\u2019t made in California was its Los Angeles-raised writer and showrunner Zoe Kazan. \u201cI 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],\u201d she told New York magazine.<\/p>\n

\"ShowrunnerShowrunner Zoe Kazan: Captivated by Steinbeck\u2019s novel. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 she\u2019d first read Steinbeck\u2019s magnum opus when she was 15 and was captivated. Afterwards, she watched the 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean and directed by Elia Kazan \u2013 her grandfather, who became a friend of Steinbeck.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s own forebears, won\u2019t figure much, though Irish actor Ciar\u00e1n Hinds does play family patriarch Samuel.<\/p>\n

The series has as its main focus the evil, manipulative and murderous character of Cathy Ames, a woman who Steinbeck memorably introduced: \u201cI believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kazan has said she\u2019s not being revisionist in her treatment of the character, played by English star Florence Pugh. Ames wasn\u2019t a central figure in the book, but Kazan wanted her perspective in order to understand why she did such terrible things.<\/p>\n

As Pugh told Harper\u2019s Bazaar: \u201cPeople keep on saying to me, \u2018I read the book. She\u2019s a terrible person.\u2019 But I get really arsey about that and I can explain all the awful things that she does. It\u2019s my responsibility to understand the character because they can\u2019t defend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

East of Eden, Netflix, from October 1. <\/p>\n

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Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Baillie Arts & entertainment editor\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7 19 Sep, 2026 07:04 PM3 mins to read \u200c Subscribe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13991,6743,179,298471,1853,42584,21656,3806,8142,156,2082,221,20836,117,111,139,69,1118,57230,298472,423,10112,13181,763,544,220230,1316,80],"class_list":["post-605764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-13991","tag-became","tag-california","tag-campions","tag-central","tag-cited","tag-comparison","tag-east","tag-eden","tag-entertainment","tag-for","tag-how","tag-jane","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-oscarwinning","tag-otagoshot","tag-point","tag-power","tag-released","tag-reviews","tag-some","tag-steinbecks","tag-when","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}