‘The Goldfinch’ movie nets ‘Tinker Tailor’ scribe Peter Straughan

“The Goldfinch” has found its screenwriter. Peter Straughan is set to pen the adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller for Warner Bros.

Straughan previously co-wrote “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” based on the 1974 John le Carre spy thriller, with his late wife, Bridget O’Connor. The couple’s work earned them an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay.

Straughan’s other credits include “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” “Frank” and the upcoming “Our Brand Is Crisis.”

With “The Goldfinch,” Straughan will tackle a dense, ambitious novel that unfolds over two decades and nearly 800 pages.

Published in October 2013, the book tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who loses his mother in a terrorist bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and becomes virtually orphaned. As he makes his way through the world, he keeps a tiny Carel Fabritius painting stolen from the site of the tragedy with him.

Pulitzer winners come with a strong pedigree and built-in audience, but they don’t always make the smoothest transition to the screen. Stephen Daldry’s “The Hours” derived from a Pulitzer-winning novel, but so did “The Road,” “The Shipping News” and “A Thousand Acres.”

Tartt’s book has spent more than a year on the New York Times’ bestseller list for hardcover fiction, and Warner Bros. acquired film rights in July.

“The Goldfinch” is being produced by Brett Ratner of RatPac Entertainment and Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson of Color Force.

Warner also acquired movie rights to Tartt’s debut novel, “The Secret History,” several years ago.

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