Author Donna Tartt has only written three books in her almost 30-year career, and each has been a major literary sensation. It started with The Secret History back in the ’90s, a mystery tome about elite college students embroiled in a murder scandal. But Tartt is known for her almost chameleon-like ability to dip into different genres and styles. Her follow-up, The Little Friend, was more of a Southern gothic, and her third, The Goldfinch, a sentimental, Dickensian study on grief.
But despite their popularity and acclaim, none of Tartt’s books have made it to the big screen until now. Roadshow Films just released their trailer for The Goldfinch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Tartt’s latest, and it looks every bit as harrowing as its textual counterpoint.
The Goldfinch tells the story of Theo Decker, a young boy who survives a terrorist attack that kills his mother. In the chaos of the moment, he steals a painting— Carel Fabritius’s The Goldfinch—from the art museum where the attack takes place, a highly regarded piece of art that he carries with him, unable to part with it in his grief. The book follows Theo through his adolescence and into adulthood, tracking his various relationships, and chronicling the hardships that come with impossible loss.
The film stars Ansel Elgort as an adult Theo, with Nicole Kidman as his guardian Mrs. Barbour, Luke Wilson as his father Larry, Sarah Paulson as his stepmother Xandra, Jeffrey Wright as his mentor Hobie, and Aneurin Barnard as his best friend Boris. Oakes Fegley and Finn Wolfhard play Theo and Boris as adolescents.
The story of a stolen life. #TheGoldfinch pic.twitter.com/V7oZ0ODJSS
— The Goldfinch Movie (@GoldfinchMovie) May 28, 2019
The film was adapted by Peter Straughan and directed by John Crowley, best known for the Oscar-nominated, Saorise Ronan-starring Brooklyn. It will be released on September 13, just in time for awards season. We can’t wait to see this beautiful book brought to life. We’re already crying.
Images: Roadshow Films