AMC’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’: Everything We Know About New Franchise From ‘IWTV’ Creators
AMC is making a big investment in more Rolin Jones literary adaptations of American novels. The Interview With the Vampire showrunner will spearhead a new anthology franchise called Great American Stories for the network. Each season will be an adaptation of a different classic from American literature. The first season will be an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Depression-era novel, The Grapes of Wrath.
AMC announced Great American Stories on April 7. Here’s everything there is to know so far about the franchise.
What is AMC’s Great American Stories?
Great American Stories is a new TV franchise produced by AMC Studios and built on iconic American stories, starting with Steinbeck’s timeless novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Each season of the anthology series will be devoted to a different celebrated work, historical moment, or individual narrative celebrating and highlighting the American spirit.
Rolin Jones (Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire, Friday Night Lights, Boardwalk Empire) will adapt The Grapes of Wrath for AMC and AMC+ as the first season of this new series and then manage the franchise, working with acclaimed creative talent connected to individual seasons.
Also attached to help launch and manage the franchise is Mark Johnson, who is overseeing the Anne Rice Immortal Universe and whose long list of film and television producing credits includes Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Halt and Catch Fire, Rectify, The Natural, Rain Man, Diner, Donnie Brasco, Galaxy Quest, Good Morning, Vietnam, The Notebook, and The Holdovers.
“For more than a year we have been searching for the perfect story to launch our next big television franchise, and we found it in The Grapes of Wrath, which is as timely and relevant today as it was when first published in 1939,” Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, said in a statement on April 7. “Our country is built upon so many unforgettable historic and dramatic moments, tales of bravery and courage, classic novels, short stories, and chronicles well known and never-before-told. As a network that began its life as American Movie Classics, this is the franchise we’re destined to bring to the screen.”
“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,” Jones said. “This is Dan McDermott’s big, bold, torpedo bat swing at AMC. He’s hired me to roll a beauty off the factory floor every year. I hope to never have another job for the rest of my career.”
“Never have I felt more professional pressure than in accepting this challenge to help translate some legendary American stories to the television screen,” Johnson said. “I am utterly grateful to AMC for this invitation and truly indebted to Rolin for his trust in me. What a terrifying opportunity!”
When does AMC’s The Grapes of Wrath premiere?
A premiere date will be announced at a later time. Jones currently has his hands full between the development of this series and production on Interview With the Vampire Season 3, which premieres in 2026. Writing on Season 3 began in 2024. Production on Season 3 is ramping up now and continuing through the summer in Toronto.
As previously stated, Great American Stories aims to release a new season once a year. It will air on AMC and stream on AMC+. There are no details yet about potential future novels to be adapted.
What is The Grapes of Wrath about?
The Grapes of Wrath centers the Joads, a family of tenant farmers, as they travel from Oklahoma to California after their way of life is destroyed by the Dust Bowl, drought, and the economic devastation of the Great Depression. They travel on the “mother road” along with other “Okies” seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a fruitful future. The novel was published in April 1939 and won Steinbeck the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
An AMC executive said Great American Stories fits perfectly into the network’s “epic” franchises.
“I actually look at it as big and epic as what we’ve seen with Walking Dead, the Anne Rice universe, and Dark Winds,” AMC chief commercial officer Kim Kelleher told The Hollywood Reporter. “Even if you haven’t read the book since high school, there’s a lot of expectation and build up around this. And I feel like the roster of talent he’s put around it is going to do it justice.”
That’s all the available information for Great American Stories. We’ll continue to report the latest developments here.
Great American Stories: The Grapes of Wrath, Series Premiere TBA, AMC, Streaming on AMC+
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