'East Of Eden' Adaptation With Jennifer Lawrence May Be Split Into Two Movies, Gary Ross Says

Jennifer Lawrence and "East of Eden" sound like a match made in Oscar heaven, and now that may be doubled.

Writer-director Gary Ross ("Pleasantville," "The Hunger Games") told The Hollywood Reporter that he'll likely split the movie into two parts -- a fitting move given that John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a hefty 602 pages.

“We may break it in half, into one generation and the next," Ross said. "And that’s what we're talking about now.”

Lawrence is on board to play Cathy Ames, who became one of the defining female antagonists of the 20th century. Cathy is the wife of the novel's protagonist, Adam Trask. As a teenager, she murders her parents by setting fire to the family's home while they sleep. Steinbeck refers to her as a "psychic monster" with a "malformed soul."

"East of Eden" is in development at Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, but there's no production plan in place yet. Ross said it may or may not be his and Lawrence's next project, as they both have crowded filming schedules ahead.

[via THR]