Director John Crowley has finally found the star of his adaptation of Donna Tartt’s novel “Goldfinch” – former “Divergent” star Ansel Elgort. The film, which will be co-financed by Amazon Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures, will be part of a stronger push of a partnership between traditional movie studios and the streaming platforms.
It is expected that Ansel Elgort will be playing the lead role of Theodore “Theo” Decker in “Goldfinch.” In Tartt’s novel, Theo becomes involved in art forgeries after he survives a deadly terrorist bombing in an art museum, leaving him motherless.
So far, there has been no additional news yet as to who will be joining him in the film.
Amazon’s push for the awards season
“Goldfinch” is also remarkable as it is one of the first few “prestige” films that will be financed by both a major streaming service and a traditional movie studio in the form of Amazon and Warner Bros. respectively. RatPac is the third major investor of the film.
Amazon’s aggressive push to get into the awards season was earlier legitimized this year after its film “Manchester by the Sea” became a major awards sensation. For “Goldfinch,” the streaming giant nabbed the streaming rights for its Prime platform while it also has the rights to launch it for its pay-TV window on networks like HBO and FX.
Critical acclaim for Tartt
The source material of the movie was critically acclaimed when it was released in 2013. It was announced as Amazon’s best book of that year and was notable for receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the next year. The novel beat out Bob Shacochis “The Woman Who Lost Her Soul” and Philipp Meyer’s “The Son for the Pulitzer.
It was also shortlisted for the National Book Award in 2013.
When Tartt won the prize, she was already 75 and was already on her third novel. While it received rather mixed reviews from publications and critics, it was praised by the Pulitzer judges for its “exquisitely drawn characters” that was not expected of a coming-of-age book.
The last project John Crowley had worked on was the drama “Brooklyn,” which starred Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, and Julie Walters. Ansel Elgort, meanwhile, was last seen in the blockbuster hit “Baby Driver,” which saw him act alongside Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx. His next movie will be the drama “Billionaire Boys Club,” due out next year.
“Goldfinch” will starts its production with Ansel Elgort and John Crowley in the first quarter of 2018.
