Film School Rejects points us to an interview in USA Today with Peter Jackson that’s topped by this claustrophobic shot of Stanley Tucci as murderer George Harvey. USA Today wonders how the brutality of the movie will translate to the screen, and Jackson responds:
There’s a big difference between subject matter and tone. Sure, the murder of a young woman is bleak subject matter, but when that person is Susie Salmon, and where experiencing her discovery of what her new life is like on the “other side,” there’s plenty of humor. She’s often very irreverent, which makes her a delightful character. I never found the book to be bleak…
I found the book to be curiously optimistic. I felt inspired by Susie’s struggle to come to terms with her own death. In the face of overwhelming grief, she finds hope. She holds on to love, and by doing so she transcends the horror of her murder. There is a lightness and joy that you feel at the end of the book — a sense that you’ve gone through an intense experience but you’ve come out the other side, freer. That is definitely the tone we were reaching for when we made the film.
More of the interview, and another photo after the cut.
USA Today asks Jackson, “How do you create a convincing heaven that isn’t hokey?”
It’s God-less in the sense that when Susie dies she finds herself caught in a place between Earth and Heaven — she is in an “In-Between,” as Alice Sebold calls it. We wanted this world to be ruled by Susie’s unconscious desires. Susie’s “In-Between” begins as a powerful, beautiful and mysterious place — it is familiar and strange, comforting and sad; a young 14-year-old girl’s idea of “heaven.” It is quite like the world of dream, using the magic of metaphor to convey Susie’s psychological and emotional life.
But as the film progresses, we see that this place Susie has created for herself has become a kind of prison. She can’t sustain the idea of a “perfect world” forever. She begins to understand that something else is binding her to this “In-Between” world. It is something she must face, before she can be truly free of the man who killed her. She comes to understand that in order to move on, she must reclaim her life from the man who took it.
We certainly have no intention of using this movie to paint a definitive picture of what Heaven is like, and who resides there. When Susie finally does move on from this “In-Between” existence, we’re happy for audiences to imagine this new world in whatever way makes them comfortable.
For a glimpse of how that might look onscreen, here’s a shot symbolizing this in-between existence. (You might guess that this photo comes from Empire online.)
22 Responses for "First Look at The Lovely Bones"
I’m way excited about this project, and this interview does nothing to dissuade me. It sounds like Jackson and Co. are taking the right approach.
Something about Andrew Lesnie’s lighting here reminds me of Benjamin Button.
This sounds perfect, just how I imagined it when I read the book. My excitement for “The Lovely Bones” just keeps growing!
“USA Today wonders how the brutality of the movie will translate to the screen”
Easy. Through the projector, of course! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
I really look forward to this film and can’t wait till I get my hands on the Empire’s anniversary issue for more info on this and Tintin.
Peter Jackson is fucking awesome, so this is going to be great.
I really wish Ryan Gosling hadnt have dropped out of this. I understand that he is too young for the part, but he is such a better actor than Wahlberg.
I still need to see Heavenly Creatures, but I can honestly say I haven’t found Peter Jackson to be all that compelling a storyteller. I admire his technical prowess and his ambition, but I never really connected with any of his films on an emotional level.
I’ll be interested to see how this one turns out, but it’s hard for me to feign excitement for this.
Tucci’s role has oscar written all over it
@ amanda
I agree sooooooo much.
Not that I’m saying Wahlberg is perfect for the role of Jack Salmon, but yea…Gosling is too young to have even been considered.
As a huge fan of the book and a real believer in its cinematic potential and in Peter Jackson, this interview has me even more stoked than before. Can’t wait.
@ JAB
I hope so. He deserves a nomination at some point in his career.
so great to read this Lovely Bones/Tucci love. I completely agree (and see my previous post calling for Tucci’s Oscar win).
And harry, do watch “Heavenly Creatures.” Not only will you admire Kate Winslet (and wonder at the difference in career trajectories taken by she and Melanie Lynsky), but you’ll see that Jackson really can tell a story. With harrowing detail and tone. Excellent for Lovely Bones. I’m just hoping that the gentle and harsh touches of family life ring true.
My problem with Jackson directing this movie is that make “Lovely Bones” automatically a “big” picture. Such a eerie, disturbing, discrete, and touching history, IMO, should be a “small” picture.
For some years we read that Lynn Ramsay (her partnership with Samantha Morton in “Morven Callar” is unforgetable) is attached to adapt “Lovely” (also as writer, as Jackson). Don’t know why Ramsay lleave or was drop out the project. Somebody know?
This looks great, and I liked the book, but I wish they wouldn’t just come out and say that Tucci’s character is the murderer. There’s quite a build up to the official reveal in the book, and I’m assuming in the movie as well.
Really, Ryan B?
We get the first hint George Harvey is the murder by the fifth paragraph in the novel, and we know for certain on page 4. In the screenplay we know by page 7. Every article about Tucci’s casting last year was upfront about the nature of his character. The moment of realizaton in the screenplay is a lot creepier than the blunt matter-of-fact reveal in the novel.
It’s like Hitchcock’s distinction between surprise and suspense. We’re more disturbed by knowing than by being kept in the dark.
This movie sounds good, but I’m not sure I can stomach the first five minutes (I didn’t read the book, but I read part of the synopsis on Wikipedia and it horrified me). Ryan, does Jackson prolong the scene or is it just quick? Because if it’s like that torture scene in “Pan’s Labyrinth”, this film gets an R-rating automatically.
I have grat expectations about this movie.
But, every time two words are whispering on my mind.. Ryan Gosling… Ryan Gosling… Ryan Gosling… Ryan Gosling…
Nick K: the beginning of the book tells us how Suzie died; it’s not til later that the event is described. So you might get through the first five minutes of the film, just fine. It’s farther in that you might have problems. But if they treat that scene as artfully as it was done in the book (and please, let’s not add violence – especially violence against children – for the sake of adding violence), it will be hard but bearable.
Actually Gosling had already been cast, it had nothing to do with Gosling’s age. He gained 20 pounds to look older, and that wasn’t what Jackson was looking for. It was a conflict of interest and I still wish they would have gone with Gosling. If Wahlberg is plastic and one note like he mostly is, he can solely bring the potential of this being good movie into mediorce territory.
Thanks HaroldsMaude. My brother had started reading “The Lovely Bones” but my mom strongly advised him to stop (which he did), and whenever I ask him about that scene, he looks like he just ate a rotten egg and refuses to go into details. Then I read Wikipedia, and I was disturbed by what happens. But if it is “artfully done” as you said, I might be able to stomach it. I think I’d better read the book before I see the movie.
I’ve read the script…and No…the scene is not graphic or explicit at all….Jackson’s stated that the “event” is just the catalyst to get the real story going so he’s not going to dwell on it or make it explicit.
Where can I get a copy of the script for
The Lovely Bones?
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