Hollywood is rediscovering Steinbeck — in a big way.
Kevin Costner and his Tig production partner Jim Wilson have just acquired rights to John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley — for adaptation into a weekly television show.
And producer Jerry Tokofsky, walking on the top of the world with the rave reviews for his film version of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, reveals he’s acquired films rights to In Dubious Battle from the Steinbeck estate.
These in addition to the latest big-screen adaptation of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, currently being released by MGM.
Wilson notes that Charley “seems like a difficult work to translate — after all, it’s not Grapes of Wrath, it’s a monologue with a little dog. But we feel we have figured a way to put a handle on it.”
As far as Tokofsky’s project, he notes that In Dubious Battle “was once going to be made by John Huston, with Huston and Steinbeck collaborating on the script. But Steinbeck died and the rights reverted to the estate.” He says that like Glengarry Glen Ross, his Battle will be headlined “by multiple stars.” One of those stars in the saga about the unionization of the apple orchard workers in the ’30s could well be Nick Nolte.
