IP Picks🔎: 'Gatsby' Reimagined in Boom-Time L.A.
➕ A nursing home murderer, a model in crisis and a hot unpublished manuscript
Welcome to The Optionist. Thanks for reading along.
The story that caught my attention this week was the news that AMC is remaking The Grapes of Wrath as a one-season limited series. It will be the first installment of the network’s new “Great American Stories” anthology series, which will spotlight a “different celebrated work, historical moment or individual narrative celebrating and highlighting the American spirit.” I’m always interested in which IP is getting revived, but this one — and what AMC is trying do here — is particularly fascinating to me.
Grapes is, of course, Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck’s classic novel about the Joad family’s hardscrabble journey from Dust Bowl Oklahoma to the promise of a better life in California. Written during the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s realism captures the economic devastation of the time as well as the inequality and unfair work conditions forced on farm laborers and factory workers.
The book was adapted for the screen in 1940 for John Ford’s Best Picture nominee of the same name, which is considered one of the greatest American films ever made. In 2013, Steven Spielberg even flirted with remaking it. Grapes has had an enduring cultural impact, especially among musicians. Everyone from Woody Guthrie to Bad Religion to Bruce Springsteen to Mumford & Sons has written songs inspired by it. And it’s still a staple of high school and college English classes.
The thing that struck me, though, was this: At a time when Hollywood is supposedly steering clear of politics in its films and TV shows — or at the very least treading carefully — AMC is taking on this highly political novel. The network danced around this issue in its announcement while still trying to lean into the idea that the story was about an overlooked segment of Americans (white, working class, poor, take your pick). Said Rolin Jones, the show runner of the proposed series. “We’re thinking about Great American Stories like one of those resolute car factories in Michigan — bring in visionary creators, give them an assembly line of singular talent to build the thing, hand them the keys and get the hell out of the way.”
Still, it’s impossible to ignore the social justice themes that run throughout the book. Grapes is a blistering critique of capitalism and inequality. Ford’s movie softened that a bit to focus on the individual resilience of the Joad family, but it’s still there. Regardless of the approach AMC takes, the result is likely to be controversial. How the racial dynamics of migrant workers then versus now is handled in the show will be a point of contention.
To me, choosing a story that focuses on poverty in America is an interesting choice. I would guess AMC picked Grapes because executives and creators saw it as a story that spoke to the populism of the moment, but in a way that might appeal to both Trump voters and Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez supporters. I applaud AMC’s guts for taking on such a progressive novel from a time when the unequal distribution of wealth — and capitalism itself — were being questioned. But I’m not sure that AMC totally appreciates the political briar patch it has stepped in.
Not surprisingly, the trades completely missed this part of the story. THR suggested that AMC was going “Anne Rice-ify the stories,” whatever that means (I guess because showrunner Rolin Jones and producer Mark Johnson both worked on the network’s Interview with the Vampire series). Meanwhile, Variety led with the idea that AMC was simply leaning into the “movie classics” part of its heritage. Both took the “car factory” comments at face value. None discussed the politics of it all.
Beyond the politics of this first selection, I’m excited to see what other stories AMC has in mind. The possibilities are endless. Of course, The Optionist flagged the perfect season-two book a couple of weeks ago. It would also be a fab standalone project (plus, it’s also in the public domain). Never let it be said that the Optionist isn’t ahead of the curve in its picks!
Correction: The original version of this post misattributed the quote beginning “We’re thinking about Great American Stories like one of those resolute car factories …” to Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. I apologize for the error.
On to this week’s picks, which include a fresh take on The Great Gatsby, a thriller about a nursing home patient confessing to murder and a hot manuscript currently making the rounds. The full lineup:
A drama that reimagines The Great Gatsby in a new and creative way
A thriller about an elderly woman who confesses to being a multiple murderer
A drama with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibes
A domestic drama pitched as The Big Chill meets Marriage Story
A speculative-fiction horror tale that imagines a vampire-led slave revolt
