Lovely Bones update

Earlier this month, we told you about Peter Jackson finally completing the script for the drama THE LOVELY BONES, which had been gestating since early 2004, and was shopping it around to studios. Studios were initially reticent to purchase the script due to its considerably hefty price tag in Jackson’s directing and producing fees. DreamWorks, it seems, had no such compunction as they’ve recently committed at least sixty-five million for Jackson’s services. The film is an adaption of the Alice Sebold novel of the same name and tells the story of a fourteen year-old girl named Suzie Salmon who, after being brutally raped and murdered, narrates from heaven how her family and friends have responded to her death. Production is scheduled to begin in October in Pennsylvania and New Zealand with a release date set for fourth quarter 2008.

That’s not the end of the story, though. In the current blockbuster-driven Hollywood, the question remains whether a film that hearkens back to Jackson’s breakout dark drama HEAVENLY CREATURES with seemingly no wide commercial appeal is worth the price tag of a big-budget summer tentpole. Not only does NY Mag not think so based on the film’s subject matter but also because they assert the script simply isn’t that impressive, or at least not as impressive as CREATURES. Ru-oh. I guess we’ll find out if they’re right next year.