LOS ANGELES?Fresh from his "Lord of the Rings" successes, New Zealand film director Peter Jackson has taken his adaptation talent to "The Lovely Bones," a far cry from fantasy adventure sagas.
"The only thing as a filmmaker that I am scared of or fear is repetition," Jackson told reporters in Los Angeles earlier this month about his adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel about a 14-year-old girl who watches her family and friends from the afterlife after being brutally raped and murdered.
"I have no interest in doing the same thing over and over again, and that's not to say that I wouldn't do another fantasy film or I wouldn't do another splatter film one day or another film with puppets," added the producer-director, surrounded by the film's cast at a Beverly Hills hotel.
Jackson, who gained international recognition with his "splatter" or "splatstick" horror comedies and won three Oscars for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," welcomed the opportunity for a break from his usual endeavors.
The epic trilogy inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy were major box office hits when they came out in 2001, 2002 and 2003, grossing around three billion dollars worldwide and winning 17 Oscars. Jackson produced all three.
An eagerly anticipated prequel, "The Hobbit," is due to begin filming next year under the helm of Mexican director Guillermo del Toro who, like Jackson, has a strong track record in fantasy and horror ("Pan's Labyrinth" and "Hellboy").
But Jackson said he took on the challenge of adapting Sebold's story about a teenager who comes to terms with her own death in the afterlife because it was a challenge, a "wonderful puzzle."
"The movie that we did make, we wanted it to become something that was almost like a mystery, a crime mystery of what happens when you're in this world of the subconscious, the world of the afterlife."
The film, which opens in US theaters on January 15, features an A-list cast including Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, Mark Walhberg and Rose McIver.
Saoirse Ronan, the 15-year-old Irish actress nominated for an Academy Award for her role in 2007's "Atonement," plays the lead character of Susie Salmon.
Tucci, who played the husband of American chef Julia Child in "Julie & Julia", was initially reluctant to take on the role of villain in the action thriller.
"It was hard in every respect. I was very reticent to take the part at first," explained Tucci.
"I have kids and I can't really read anything or watch anything with kids getting harmed," said the 49-year-old father of three whose wife, Kate, died of cancer earlier this year.
"I don't like things about serial killers... This was not that. This was a beautiful story about an exploration of loss," he added.
The feature, which had limited openings in Los Angeles and New York, has been criticized for not showing the violent murder of the protagonist.
But Jackson defended his approach, saying he had wanted to make a film suitable for teenagers.
"I never regarded the movie as being a film about a murder. Yet if we shot any aspect of that particular sequence in any way, then it would stigmatize the film," he explained.
"To me, to adapt a book is not a question of producing a carbon copy of the book. It's impossible. To include everything, the film would be five or six hours long," Jackson added.
Sarandon, who plays the role of Salmon's grandmother, added a humorous note to the film.
"I think what's beautiful about the movie is that it tells you to live your life and be joyful when you can and when you have it because the scary thing about this tale is that it happens in such a haphazard way," she said.
She added: "All the things that happen, it's up for grabs so it's kind of an exercise in surrender in a way. So I kind of just surrendered to the atmosphere of what was going on and the words were there, and the cigarette and booze."
