Casting Net: Jennifer Lawrence to star in 'East of Eden'

• Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence is set to star in Universal’s adaptation of John Steinbeck‘s classic novel East of Eden. Lawrence will re-team with her Hunger Games director Gary Ross for the project, which Brian Grazer is producing through Imagine Entertainment. The novel was previously adapted for the big screen in 1955 by Elia Kazan, and starred James Dean. Ross and Lawrence are also looking to work together on an adaptation of Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites. [Deadline]

• Downton Abbey alum (and Divergent star) Theo James is set to star alongside Dakota Fanning and Richard Gere in the drama Franny. James and Fanning will play a young couple who gets the interest of Gere’s hedonist character. Andrew Renzi will direct the film from his Sundance Lab script. [Deadline]

• Minnie Driver has joined the cast of Blackbird about an up-and-coming artist (Larry Crowne‘s Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who can’t deal with the pressure and tries to take her own life. Driver will play her mother and manager. [The Wrap]