Steven Spielberg is in talks with Dreamworks to remake The Grapes of Wrath, because apparently what's missing from John Ford's 1940 adaptation is cloying, formulaic nicey-nice conclusions, transparent plot-development exposition, and watering down of the script for minimum controversy.

Thankfully, Dreamworks claims Spielberg only aims to produce the thing because he'll reportedly be too busy filming American Sniper with Bradley Cooper (dry heave sound). Still, it's hard to believe that he'd rather be doing that than working on an adaptation of one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Cue untested hand-puppet director! Apparently there was a big race to buy the rights for Wrath from the Steinbeck estate due to the upcoming 75th anniversary of the book.