LOS ANGELES (AP) – Film remakes of “The Grapes of Wrath” and “East of Eden” fell apart because John Steinbeck’s son and daughter-in-law impeded the projects, the writer’s stepdaughter told jurors in federal court Tuesday.
Waverly Scott Kaffaga alleges that long-running litigation over the author’s estate has prevented her from making the most of Steinbeck’s copyrights at a time when marquee names such as Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Lawrence were interested in bringing some his masterpieces back to the screen.
“The catalog has been dirtied by these legalities,” Kaffaga said. “The whole Steinbeck canon has been put into doubt.”
Kaffaga, daughter of the late author’s third wife, Elaine, is suing the estate of stepbrother Thomas Steinbeck, who died last year, and his widow and their company.
The lawsuit follows a decades-long dispute between Thomas Steinbeck and Kaffaga’s mother over control of the author’s works.