'The Lovely Bones'

The casting for Peter Jackson’s adaptation of ‘The Lovely Bones’ continues to grow in its appeal. Rachel Weiss and Ryan Gosling have been announced as the mother and father at the helm of the family around which the novel revolves. The casting of Gosling seems slightly askew, and with both names they are casting decidedly younger than the middle aged people described in the book. Nevertheless, Weiss has always excelled, whether it be rubbish ‘Mummy’ sequels or ‘The Constant Gardner’, so too Gosling was outstanding in ‘Half Nelson’ and ‘The Believer’, proving his worth so that you feel he could lend himself to the various stages in life he will have to play in the role. His part of all the players could be the one to pull in nominations next year. Stanley Tucci has been announced as Mr. Harvey, a truly sinister part – I don’t think we’ve see Tucci in a villain role since ‘Muder One’ on TV so this will be one to watch. The biggest role has gone to a young Irish girl Saoirse Ronan, who has quietly been making a name for herself – co-starring with impressive actors and being involved with interesting projects. Many of you may have read the mention she got in ‘The Ticket’ last week, the link to her IMDB page is here. 'The Lovely Bones' will be an interesting departure for Peter Jackson, though one setting in the book will require some CGI I expect. 'The Lovely Bones' and its story of family trauma will be more akin to 'Heavenly Creatures', a bleak, dark film starring a young Kate Winslet. A tour guide on a 'Lord of the Rings' tour we took last year speculated that Jackson accepted this project as a sign of gratitude to his partners after the scale involved in his previous projects.