The Lovely Bones (film) - Production

Production

In May 2000, Film4 Productions acquired feature film rights to Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones, 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. The company attached Luc Besson and Peyronnet's production company Seaside to the project, two years before the novel's release. By February 2001, Lynne Ramsay was hired to direct and write the film adaptation of the novel. 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. Author Alice Sebold was invited by the producers to provide input on the project.

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.

In July 2003, the studio DreamWorks negotiated a first look deal with producer Peyronnet, after DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg expressed interest in the project. 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. In April 2004, producers Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens entered negotiations to develop the project. 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." 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.

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. 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." 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." 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. "hen Jackson created Susie's heaven, in a 1973 world, he went through the Partridge Family television show archives as a reference."

" basically more violence and suffering, wanted far more violence They just weren't satisfied We got a lot of people telling us that they were disappointed with this death scene, as they wanted to see in agony and suffer a lot more, we had to create a whole suffering death scene just to give people the satisfaction they needed."

—Jackson to Reuters on re-shooting Harvey's death scene, November 2009

A 120-page draft of the script was written by September 2006. In April 2007, with the script completed by Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens, and Jackson intending to direct, the group of 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 Lord of the Rings trilogy. 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.

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

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. 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!" 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 and wanted to "see more of Harvey in pain." 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.