BREAKING Movie News with a Kiwi slant

RINGS` Jackson to work on LOVELY BONES

THE LORD OF THE RINGS director Peter Jackson and his longtime partner Fran Walsh have optioned the film rights to Alice Sebold's THE LOVELY BONES. In an unusual move, Jackson and Walsh ponied up the cash themselves for the option and will develop the screenplay to the film outside of the interference of any studio. Once the duo have completed the script to BONES to their satisfaction, they then will seek a studio partner. EDITOR'S NOTE: THANK YOU UNCLE GEORGE FOR PAVING THE WAY....YET AGAIN.

Jackson and Walsh will once again work alongside their RINGS teammate Philippa Boyens on the LOVELY BONES screenplay, with the idea to begin work on the script in January 2006. The film will most likely not be ready for screening until the fall of 2007. The British production company FilmFour will serve as a producer on the movie.

Sebold's story mixes high emotional drama and the supernatural; her novel tells the story of a little girl that is raped and killed by a stranger, then observes the effects of her death upon her family as well as her killer. The book once attracted the interest of Steven Spielberg as a possible directing project.