Jennifer Lawrence to star in East of Eden

Jennifer Lawrence will star in ‘East of Eden’.

The Oscar-winning actress will once again team up with her ‘Hunger Games’ director Gary Ross for a new adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, according to Deadline.

Universal and Imagine Entertainment have optioned the rights to the book, which tells the story of two sons who fight for the attention of their farmer father and later end up in a bitter feud with each other.

Lawrence will play Cathy Ames, the boys’ cruel mother and estranged wife of the farmer.

Ross reportedly envisions splitting the seminal novel across two dramatic movies.

The pair are also looking to work on another movie together, which will be pitched to studios next week.

‘Burial Rites’ is an adaptation of Hannah Kent’s gripping novel about a woman who must fight to prove her innocence when she is accused of a murder in Iceland in 1829 and finds herself facing a public execution.

Lawrence is to play the protagonist in that film, while Ross would direct.

The pair first worked together on last year’s smash hit ‘Hunger Games’ movie, but Ross pulled out of directing the film’s three sequels, with Francis Lawrence taking on the role.