When a book becomes as popular as Donna Tartt’s latest, The Goldfinch, you just know filmmakers are going to come a-calling, hoping to adapt it. Hunger Games producer Nina Jacobson and her Color Force team have scored the chance to turn the book into either a TV mini-series or a film{
The Goldfinch, which has been recommended by several in Empire’s unofficial office book club, follows a boy who loses his mother in a museum bombing, steals a painting (The Goldfinch, as painted by Carel Fabritius in 1654) in the confused aftermath and then spends his adulthood trying to unravel its mystery. Along the way he is briefly taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue family, moves to Las Vegas, befriends a colourful Ukrainian, binges on drugs, enters the antiques business with the partner of another of the bombing’s victims and chases the mystery of the painting and his family’s past to Amsterdam. So you can see why it might have some appeal…
It’s unusual for an adaptation plan to be so cloudy, especially when the producers are announcing the sale in the trades. Part of the issue could be that Tartt maintains creative control and wants to make sure the right format is found. So far, both of her previous works (1992’s The Secret History and 2002’s The Little Friend) have been eagerly snapped up, only to sit in development limbo. Might The Goldfinch have better luck? Watch this space…