Once King Kong is complete it’s all go again for Peter Jackson. He’s confirmed as adapting the book Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold with his own money, and the project won’t be seeking a distributor until the scripting is finished. Rope of Silicon quoted Variety:
Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh will be putting up their own money for the film rights completely excluding studios from the financing on the film allowing Jackson the ability to operate without a studio deadline…the rights were acquired from FilmFour, the movie arm of British broadcaster Channel 4, which will still serve as Jackson and Walsh’s partner in developing the project.
How refreshing is that? Mind you, from some of Jackson’s comments there is a lot of work to be done to carry it into a script. Coming Soon carry the story blurb:
When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven….In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death, and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself….With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief…and begin the difficult process of healing.
That really does sound an interesting tale, and I am reminded of Nobody There by James Herbert. However Jackson voices some of the work ahead:
Heaven “is cleverly not described that well in the book, because Alice wanted your imagination to do the work and decide what Susie’s heaven looks and feels like,” Jackson said. “We will have to show something on film. It has to be somehow ethereal and emotional, but it can’t be hokey.”
However it turns out I’m sure we can expect a lot of magic in those scenes, Jackson style.
