John Crowley garnered a lot of eyes for Brooklyn, his period immigrant drama starring Saoirse Ronan that earned awards buzz and multiple Oscar nominations last year, including for Best Picture. Now he’s making his next big move while still feeling the high from its success.

According to THR, Crowley will direct the film adaptation of The Goldfinch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from author Donna Tartt. The work won the coveted award for Fiction in 2014 and received high praise from The New York Times, the National Book Critics Circle, and more.

The story tells of 13-year-old New Yorker Theo Decker, who loses his mother in an accident and is abandoned by his father. Taken in by a wealthy family living on Manhattan’s Park Avenue, the kid struggles to find his place in this new high-society circuit so he clings to a mysterious painting that reminds him of his mother. It’s this piece that draws Theo into the underworld of the art scene.


the-goldfinch-book-cover

Peter Straughan of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy wrote the screenplay for the Goldfinch film, and producer Brett Ratner said earlier this year that it’s one “of the best I’ve read in years.”

Given all the attention to the book, this project is no doubt an important one for Warner Bros. and now they have an equally buzzy filmmaker to steer the helm. Brooklyn received three Oscar nominations in total, including ones for Best Picture and Ronan’s leading lady performance, and it’s being adapted for the small screen over at the BBC. Crowley, too, previously directed episodes of True Detective season 2 (the least regarded run of the HBO series, but still), as well as films like Closed Circuit and Boy A.

Here’s the official plot synopsis for The Goldfinch from BN.com:

Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art. As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love--and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

brooklyn-saoirse-ronan-image
Image via Fox Searchlight