The Lovely Bones (film)

In 1973, 14-year-old high school freshman, Susie Salmon, dreams of becoming a photographer. One day, Ray, a boy she has a crush on, asks her out. As Susie walks home through a cornfield, she runs into her neighbor, George Harvey, who coaxes her into an underground "kid's hideout" he has built. Inside, Susie grows uncomfortable and attempts to leave; Harvey grabs her and the scene fades until she is seen rushing past her alarmed classmate Ruth Connors, seemingly fleeing Harvey's den.

The Salmons become worried when Susie fails to return home from school. Her father, Jack, searches for her, while her mother, Abigail waits for the police. In town, Susie sees Jack, who does not respond to her when she calls. Susie runs home to find Harvey soaking in a bathtub. After seeing the bloody bathroom and her bracelet hanging on the sink faucet, Susie realizes she never escaped the underground hideout because Harvey murdered her. Screaming, she is pulled into the "In-Between", which is neither Heaven nor Earth. From there, Susie watches over her loved ones, and resists her new afterlife friend Holly's urging her to let go.

Investigating Susie's disappearance with Detective Fenerman, Jack believes Susie was murdered by someone she knew. He researches neighbors and eventually suspects Harvey is the killer. Fenerman is unable to find proof, as Harvey has carefully concealed the evidence. Susie's sister, Lindsey, agrees with Jack's suspicions, but their casework takes a toll on Abigail. Abigail's alcoholic mother, Lynn, moves into the house. Feeling alienated from her husband, Abigail goes to California. Susie, in her afterlife, learns that Harvey, who has targeted Lindsey as his next victim, has murdered six other girls, including Holly, and that he stuffed Susie's body into a large safe in his basement.

One night, Jack, carrying a baseball bat, trails Harvey into the cornfield. However, Jack accidentally stumbles across a teen couple named Clarissa and Brian. Brian, thinking they will be assaulted, bludgeons Jack nearly to death as Harvey watches nearby while Clarissa begs him to stop. As Jack recuperates, Lindsey breaks into Harvey's house looking for evidence that he killed Susie. Upstairs, she finds a notebook containing a sketch of the underground den, a lock of Susie's hair, and news articles about Susie's disappearance. Harvey returns and almost catches Lindsey, but she escapes and rushes home to discover that her mother has returned. She gives the notebook to her grandmother, who contacts the police. Harvey has already fled his home – taking the safe containing Susie's body with him.

Susie's afterlife begins expanding into a larger heaven, and she is greeted by Harvey's other victims. She resists Holly's urging her to enter Heaven along with the others, claiming she has one final thing to do. Meanwhile, Susie's classmates Ruth and Ray are present when Harvey drives up to dispose of the safe at a sinkhole dump site on the Conners' property. Susie returns to Earth and enters Ruth's body, causing Ruth to faint. Ray rushes to Ruth's aid only to realize she has become Susie. They kiss, completing Susie's last wish, and she returns to Heaven. Meanwhile, Harvey dumps the safe in the sinkhole, leaving it to disappear in the muddy water as he drives away.

Sometime later, Harvey meets a young woman outside a diner and offers her a ride, but she rejects him and leaves. A large icicle falls from an overhead branch, hitting Harvey's shoulder, causing him to fall backward over a steep cliff to his death. Time passes, and Susie sees that her family is healing, which Susie refers to as "the lovely bones" that grew around her absence. Susie finally enters Heaven, telling the audience: "My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was 14 years old when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. I was here for a moment and then I was gone. I wish you all a long and happy life".

• Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon, the main character and narrator.[5] She is a 14-year-old girl, who is killed by her neighbor. Ronan was also 14 years old at the time of her casting and filming. Ronan and her family were originally reluctant for Ronan to accept the role because of the film's subject matter, but agreed after meeting with Jackson.[6]
  • Evelyn Lennon as Susie at age 3
• Mark Wahlberg as Jack Salmon, Susie's father, who becomes obsessed with his daughter's murder case.[7][8] Wahlberg stated that his role in the film encouraged him to be a more cautious parent with his three children and to talk to them more about "not talking to strangers."[9] Before Wahlberg's casting, Ryan Gosling was set to play the role but was fired by Jackson the day filming was scheduled to start.[10] Gosling had gained weight and grown a beard for the role but said, "The age of the character versus my real age [of twenty-six] was always a concern of mine. Peter [Jackson] and I tried to make it work and ultimately it just didn't. I think the film is much better off with Mark Wahlberg in that role."[7][11] Gosling later admitted that the real reason for his firing was that he had arrived for filming 60 lbs. overweight and sporting a beard, without having discussed the physical change with Jackson.[12]
• Rachel Weisz as Abigail Salmon, Susie's mother. After Susie's murder, Abigail despairs and abandons the family.[8][9] Weisz stated that playing the character and the film and novel's "uplifting theme" made her look at life as a "treasure" and the film gave her a "positive feeling" rather than a "depressed" one.[9]
• Susan Sarandon as Grandma Lynn, Susie's grandmother.[13][14] Sarandon stated that her character is like a "comic relief" and that her character deals with the pain of Susie's death by drinking, smoking and shooting guns.[13][14][15]
• Stanley Tucci as George Harvey, a serial killer who murdered Susie.[16][17] Tucci stated that he had researched his role by watching documentaries and reading books by criminal profiler John E. Douglas about catching serial killers.[18] Tucci stated that his wife, Kate, had strongly urged him not to accept his role in the film because she felt, after reading the novel, that the subject matter was "too harrowing."[16] Tucci's performance as Harvey earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.
• Michael Imperioli as Detective Len Fenerman, the detective in charge of investigating Susie's death.[19]
• Rose McIver as Lindsey Salmon, Susie's 13-year-old younger sister. She is the first to suspect that Harvey was involved in Susie's death.[9][20] Jackson cast McIver particularly because she was an unknown actress.[20] Mclver stated that she had read and been a fan of the novel before having been cast in the film.[9]
• Christian Thomas Ashdale as Buckley Salmon, Susie's 4-year-old younger brother.[8]
• Reece Ritchie as Ray Singh, Susie's love interest and friend who is strongly affected by Susie's death.[21]
• Carolyn Dando as Ruth Connors, a classmate of Susie's.[20][22] Jackson stated that, after he had searched all over the world for the role, he ultimately chose to cast Dando, a relatively unknown actress, who was working as a waitress before her casting.[20]
• Charlie Saxton as Ronald Drake, one of the murder suspects.[23]
• AJ Michalka as Clarissa,[24] Susie's best friend who is dating Brian Nelson. Michalka was better known as a musician prior to her casting.[24]
• Nikki SooHoo as Denise "Holly" Le Ang, Susie's best friend in Heaven and another of Harvey's victims.
• Jake Abel as Brian Nelson, Clarissa's boyfriend who beats up Jack believing him to be the murderer, stalking him and Clarissa.
• Thomas McCarthy as Principal Caden.

In May 2000, Film4 Productions acquired feature film rights to Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones,[25] when it was a half-written manuscript. Producer Aimee Peyronnet had sought to attract studio interest to the manuscript, and an insider informed Film4's deputy head of production, Jim Wilson, of the project.[26] The company attached Luc Besson and Peyronnet's production company Seaside to the project, two years before the novel's release.[25] By February 2001, Lynne Ramsay was hired to direct and write the film adaptation of the novel.[27] In July 2002, Channel 4 shut down Film4, causing Hollywood studios and producers to pursue acquisition of feature film rights to The Lovely Bones, which had spent multiple weeks at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. The film adaptation, which had been estimated at a budget of $15 million, remained with Channel 4 under its newly developed inhouse film unit, with Ramsay still contracted to write and direct. By October 2002, Ramsay was writing the script with fellow screenwriter Liana Dognini, with filming planned for summer 2003.[26] Author Sebold was invited by the producers to provide input on the project.[28]

Ramsay, who had read the novel in manuscript prior to publication, said in 2012 that her adaptation departed from it significantly. The scenes with Susie in heaven would have been depicted purely as her father's imagination. He would have become friends with Mr. Harvey, never suspecting him of having killed his daughter. "I really didn't like the My Little Pony, she's-in-heaven, everything's-O.K. aspect", she told The New York Times in 2012.[29]

In July 2003, the studio DreamWorks negotiated a first-look deal with producer Peyronnet,[30] after DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg expressed interest in the project.[31] DreamWorks did not acquire the rights to the novel, and Ramsay was eventually detached from the project as, she says, FilmFour wanted a version more faithful to the novel.[29] In April 2004, producers Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens entered negotiations to develop the project.[32] Jackson described the book as "a wonderfully emotional and powerful story. Like all the best fantasy, it has a solid grounding in the real world."[33] By January 2005, Jackson and Walsh planned to independently purchase film rights and to seek studio financing after a script had been developed. The producers sought to begin adapting a spec script for The Lovely Bones in January 2006, with the goal of script completion and budget estimation by the following May.[34]

Jackson explained he enjoyed the novel because he found it "curiously optimistic" and uplifting because of the narrator's sense of humor, adding there was a difference between its tone and subject matter. He felt very few films dealt with the loss of a loved one.[35] Jackson foresaw the most challenging element in the novel to adapt was the portrayal of Susie, the protagonist, in her heaven, and making it "ethereal and emotional but not hokey."[33] Saoirse Ronan explained Jackson chose to depict the afterlife as depending on Susie's emotions. "Whenever Susie feels happy, Heaven is sunny and there's birds and everything. Whenever it's not so great, it's raining or she's in the middle of an ocean."[36] Jackson described the book's description of "heaven" as being an "In-Between" rather than a true heaven and said he was not trying to paint a definitive picture of heaven itself.[35] "[W]hen Jackson created Susie's heaven, in a 1973 world, he went through the Partridge Family television show archives as a reference."[37]

A 120-page draft of the script was written by September 2006.[38] In April 2007, the script was completed by Jackson, Walsh and Boyens; Jackson intended to direct. The three producers began seeking a studio partner to finance the film adaptation. Besides the major studios, smaller companies including United Artists were also contacted. New Line Cinema was excluded from negotiations because of Jackson's legal dispute with the studio over royalties from his The Lord of the Rings trilogy.[39] Jackson sought a beginning $65 million budget for The Lovely Bones, also requesting from studios what kind of promotional commitments and suggestions they would make for the film adaptation.[40]

By May, four studios remained interested in the project: DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Sony, and Universal.[41] The Lovely Bones was sold to DreamWorks for $70 million.[42] Paramount Pictures received the rights to distribute the film worldwide. Production began in October 2007 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and New Zealand.[5][43] Shooting in parts of Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties, including Hatfield,[44] Ridley Township, Phoenixville, Royersford, Malvern and East Fallowfield,[45] lasted a few weeks, and most of the studio shooting was done in New Zealand.[38]

In December 2008, Brian Eno signed on to compose the film's score. Fran Walsh, a big fan of his work, suggested him to Jackson.[46] Jackson had called Eno to request use of two of his early tracks to evoke atmosphere for the 1970s scenes in the film. When Eno asked if he could compose the whole score, Jackson was surprised, since he had heard Eno did not like working on films. For the film's ending, Eno uncovered a demo he had done in 1973 and reunited with the vocalist to create a proper version for the film, commenting: "That song from 1973 was finally finished in 2008!"[47]

In November 2009, Jackson stated that he re-shot new footage of Harvey's death scene after test audiences said it was not violent enough "to give people the satisfaction they needed".[10][48] Jackson said it was important to him that the movie receive a PG-13 rating, so that the film could appeal to the widest possible audience, despite the necessarily violent nature of some scenes.[10]

• List of ghost films

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