Director John Crowley had been meeting with several candidates for almost two months before finally handing Elgort the role of Theo.

Warner and RatPac had picked up rights to the Pulitzer-winning book back in 2014. RatPac is also an investor in the film as well as a producer. “Goldfinch,” which earned critical raves for its Dickensian plotting, tells the story of a young man named Theodore Decker who survives a terrorist bombing at an art museum — an attack that kills his mother. From there, he tumbles through a series of adventures that finds him living in Las Vegas with his deadbeat father and, later, involved in art forgeries.

Earlier this year, Amazon Studios agreed to co-finance the film, which will go into production at the start of 2018. As part of the pact, Amazon will invest more than a third of the movie’s budget, which is estimated to be in the $40 million range, according to insiders. In return, it will get streaming rights to the picture on its Prime service. It will also launch the picture on home entertainment platforms in what is commonly referred to as the pay-TV window, the term for when movies debut on premium cable channels such as HBO and Showtime.