According to trade reports, the Dreamworks committed late Friday to shelling out at least $65 million to make
Peter Jackson’s adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling 2002 novel about the murder of a 14-year-old girl and what it does to her family—as narrated by the victim’s spirit after the fact.
This is a really great story. I picked up the book from the author at a trade show. She was giving it away. Beautifully written, from a really different perspective (come on, the narrator is narrating from her “Heaven”).
“When you read an emotionally magical story that cries out to be turned into a major motion picture, you hope its winding path can find its way to the door of your own company,” said
Steven Spielberg, who has reportedly been wanting to work with Jackson for some time.
Jackson used his own cash in early 2005 to option the rights to Sebold’s book and started shopping his script, which he co-penned with Lord of the Ring collaborators Fran Walsh (also his wife) and Philippa Boyens, about a week ago.
Paramount-owned DreamWorks was one of several powerhouses vying for a chance to bring the five-hanky story to the big screen, eventually besting bids from Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Pictures. Industry insiders have said that, with marketing costs and other intangibles factored in, the eventual price tag for The Lovely Bones could climb as high as $90 million.
LOTR studio New Line opted out of the process, with exec Bob Shaye having vowed never to work with Jackson again, despite the fact that the Academy Award-winning director was expected at one point to helm The Hobbit for New Line, as well. (Spider-Man’s
Sam Raimi has since said that he’d love the chance to take on The Hobbit.)
While the New Zealand-born Jackson is best known by mainstream American audiences for his Middle-earth epics and his 2005 King Kong remake, the filmmaker is also more than equipped to handle Sebold’s brand of tragedy, dark humor and emotional fragility—even without a host of CGI characters traipsing around.
Jackson’s 1994 true-crime drama Heavenly Creatures introduced
Kate Winslet to the big screen and established Jackson as someone who knew how to depict a twisted soul.
Cameras are expected to roll on The Lovely Bones in October in Pennsylvania and New Zealand, with Jackson surmizing that the finished product will be ready for a late 2008 release.
