Oscar nominated scribe tapped to adapt ‘The Goldfinch’

Oscar nominated scribe tapped to adapt ‘The Goldfinch’ under the roof of the Brothers Warner.

Peter Straughn (‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’, ‘The Men Who Stare At Goats’) has been called upon to adapt the Pulitzer Prize winning ‘The Goldfinch’ for the big screen. I’d wager he has his hands full as the book covers quite a lot of space and time. It will be interesting to see how well he can pen this for budget, considering the book seemingly lacks the ‘blockbuster’ or ‘international’ intrigue storylines that allow for a grander stage.

But, who knows? Now days with the green screen machine in full swing, perhaps they can just build out a soundstage and just age the lead digitally. Whether he can cut it down to shootable proportions is only half the battle though, getting out of the format is where most sink. ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’ immediately springs to mind as an exceptionally lazy example of adapting poorly and where this whole works can go wrong. Nothing like having a famous voice read you a book while pretty pictures play on the screen.

From where I sit, it looks to me like this thing will need an Oscar nod just to recoup the advance on the script.

He’s a hell of a writer though, I guess we’ll see. Be sure to read the full article at HR via ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ Writer to Tackle ‘Goldfinch’ Movie Adaptation.