Based on the critically acclaimed Alice Sebold novel, Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” was always tipped for Oscar potential. Speaking with Stuff (via Filmonic) though, Jackson has revealed that Paramount had originally planned a March release before they saw a cut of the film.
“When we showed them the cut late last year, they decided to delay the release until December to plop it into the ‘awards season’ which is a nice vote of confidence in the movie,” admitted Jackson.
The delay has evidently given the director a healthy amount of time to work on final cut — something early test screening reviews of the film noted was necessary — and spend more time on the visual effects needed to presumably perfect the depiction of the world between Earth and heaven which the film’s protagonist finds herself in.
“Sometimes you wish you could pop the movie on a shelf for three months and come back to it with fresh eyes,” Jackson added. “I wish we had this time on ‘King Kong,’ which we badly wanted to reduce by 20 minutes, but we ran out of time before figuring out how to do it.”
“The Lovely Bones” follows the story of deceased victim Susie Salmon, played by Saoirse Ronan, as she struggles between her dichotomous desires for vengeance against her murderer and wishes for her family to grieve and rebuild their lives. Starring alongside Ronan will be the likes of Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Rachel Weisz.
Jackson also took time to discuss his involvement with “Dambusters,” a film about the 617 Squadron’s famous dam assault scribed by British film star Stephen Fry (who is set voice the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland”) and set to be helmed by first time New Zealand director Christian Rivers.
“I need to polish a draft of the script, and I’ve been too busy,” noted Jackson. “Fortunately, there’s no ticking clock, but that has meant that it’s been held up. I’ll get my draft done soon, and will get it, ahem, off the ground.”
The film had previously undertaken test shooting in New Zealand earlier in the year. As for “Tintin,” apparently he and Spielberg are also still open to co-directing a third ‘Tintin’ film, but evidently Jackson won’t even start directing the second feature until summer 2010 at the earliest (“The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn,” is being worked on by Jackson in post-production right now). There’s also the development of “The Hobbit” on his current plate. Dude is a busy man and you have to wonder or worry if he’s taking on too much.
Jackson’s ‘Bones,’ meanwhile, is set for a December 11th release.