IN DEFENSE OFThe Lovely Bones

My name was The Lovely Bones, like the novel, but less successful.

I was just a little over a month old from my limited engagement in New York and Los Angeles when I was murdered on January 15, 2010.

This was after most films hadn’t a chance of being seen, what with Avatar still bringing in box office gold. It’s apparently still a time when studios believe things like that don’t happen.


I wasn't murdered by Avatar, by the way. Don't think everything I mention here is a suspect. That's the problem. You never know. My murderer was a combination of shifty release dates by my studio and mediocre-to-bad reviews by the mainstream Entertainment media.

I was born to loving parents—Oscar winning father Peter Jackson and mothers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, the surrogate screenwriters of author Alice Sebold. I had an amazing cast, with particularly outstanding performances by Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan and Susan Sarandon, although Forces of Geek columnist Todd Sokolove still thinks Mark Wahlberg was the wrong choice as Jack Salmon. As it turned out, the one recognition of me from this year's Oscar nominees is Stanley Tucci, who I have to say I'm proudest about. His transformation into serial killer George Harvey has at least haunted the few people that did see me.

Part of me wished swift vengeance, wanted James Cameron's phenomenally successful Avatar, with visual effects aided by my father's company to fall fast out of first place—word of mouth instead building for me and me alone. From early reviews off my limited release, the studio clearly had little faith that I would connect with audiences who might want to judge for themselves. The rumors of liberties taken to adapt the book are simply untrue. I was expertly and carefully adapted from a novel that was fairly challenging to transfer to the screen. Sure, certain graphic elements were toned down and subplots were dropped, but not at the expense of changing the tone or the intent of the original material.

Even before my release, it seemed as if my father made an unusual choice to follow three successful Lord of the Rings movies and an over-budgeted King Kong remake with my tale. But, as fans of his work could suspect, my father tapped into the suspenseful elements from Heavenly Creatures and the supernatural elements from The Frightners. My story is tactfully told with grace, and the heavy CGI visions of the afterlife are an emotional powerhouse, only made stronger by an amazing soundtrack of ethereal rock tracks from the likes of Cocteau Twins and Brian Eno.

I do hope that in DVD and Blu-ray heaven that I find an audience. Until then, I wish you all a long and happy life.