‘Brooklyn’ Director to Helm Adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel ‘The Goldfinch’

Like most best-selling novels — and particularly those that earn Pulitzer Prizes — it was only a matter of time before The Goldfinch made its way to the big screen. After acquiring the distribution rights to the acclaimed novel last year, Warner Bros. has finally found a director to bring Donna Tartt’s story to life, and they could do a lot worse than Brooklyn director John Crowley.

Per Deadline, the director of last year’s charming, Oscar-nominated period drama has signed on to helm The Goldfinch, based on Tartt’s best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy scribe Peter Straughan wrote the adaptation, which tells the contemporary Dickensian story of Theo Decker, a 13-year-old boy who clings to an incredibly valuable painting to stay connected to his mother after she dies in a tragic accident.

Tartt’s novel follows Theo as he comes of age and bounces around between living with a wealthy family, his absentee father and a kindly antiques dealer. Throughout the story, the painting keeps him tethered to his mother and ultimately takes him into the shady underworld of art theft. Here’s the official synopsis:

Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love--and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch could make for a fine film in the right hands, and it’ll be interesting to see how Tartt’s sprawling, riveting drama translates to the big screen.