With the 75th anniversary of John Steinbeck's classic novel The Grapes of Wrath landing next year, the property is now in high demand for a film reboot.  Heading the charge in obtaining the rights is DreamWorks, which is currently in talks with the late Steinbeck's estate.  Steven Spielberg is reported as being on board to produce the remake of the 1940 John Ford-directed Oscar-winner, but is not in line to direct.  Spielberg is already committed to directing Bradley Cooper in American Sniper, due out in 2015.  Hit the jump for more on The Grapes of Wrath remake.

Deadline reports that DreamWorks and Spielberg are first in line to develop a remake of The Grapes of Wrath. A description of Steinbeck's novel follows after the film's trailer* below:

Here's the novel description (via Amazon):

A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath is also the story of one Oklahoma family, the Joads, who are driven off their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.

*How I wish trailers were made like this today.