--- description: Peter Straughan will adapt Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Goldfinch" for film. title: Peter Straughan to adapt Goldfinch for film image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea14750355895262/698769ee524fc023f5deadbd/donna-tartt.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Movie Adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Novel _The Goldfinch_ Is Underway  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 20, 2014 3:51 PM CUT  Donna Tartt at a book launch for The Goldfinch in Amsterdam, on September 22, 2013. Donna Tartt at a book launch for The Goldfinch in Amsterdam, on September 22, 2013.Bas Czerwinski—AFP/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 20, 2014 3:51 PM CUT What happens to a book after it wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, lands in the _New York Times Book Review_’s 10 best books of 2013, and earns its author a [spot](http://time.com/70819/donna-tartt-2014-time-100/ "undefined") in the TIME 100? A movie adaptation, of course. Donna Tartt’s _The Goldfinch_ will be adapted for the screen by award-winning screenwriter Peter Straughan. Straughan won a BAFTA and received an Oscar nomination for _Tinker Tailor Solider Spy_, which he adapted from the John le Carre novel with his late wife Bridget O’Connor. He also penned the script for _The Men Who Stare at Goats_ and co-wrote the indie dramedy _Frank_, a favorite this year at Sundance. The nearly 800-page novel revolves around Theo Decker, a teenaged boy who comes into possession of a 17th century Dutch painting called “The Goldfinch” moments after his mother is killed in a terrorist explosion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The story unravels over the course of two decades, the painting informing the ins and outs of Theo’s tumultuous life. Warner Bros. and RatPac Entertainment will produce the film. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3597446/goldfinch-movie-adaptation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3597446/goldfinch-movie-adaptation/"},"headline":"The Movie Adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Novel The Goldfinch Is Underway","datePublished":"2014-11-20T15:51:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:35:34.141Z","description":"The author’s third novel will be her first to make it to the silver screen","url":"https://time.com/3597446/goldfinch-movie-adaptation/","keywords":["movies","Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea14750355895262/698769ee524fc023f5deadbd/donna-tartt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea14750355895262/698769ee524fc023f5deadbd/donna-tartt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NETHERLANDS-LITERATURE-TARTT","caption":"NETHERLANDS-LITERATURE-TARTT","creditText":"Bas Czerwinski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3597446/goldfinch-movie-adaptation/","name":"The Movie Adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Novel The Goldfinch Is Underway"}}]}] ```