The Movie Adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Novel The Goldfinch Is Underway

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 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.