Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong) has cast young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan alongside Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) and Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson, The Notebook) in the feature film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s bestseller ‘The Lovely Bones’.
13 year old Ronan will play Susie Salmon, the murdered girl who watches her family and killer from heaven. Weisz and Gosling will play her parents.
Saoirse Ronan is currently filming ‘City of Ember’ in Belfast with Bill Murray. She began her screen career in 2003 featuring in episodes of RTE’s ‘The Clinic’ and later in ‘Proof’. In 2007 she was cast alongside Catherine Zeta Jones and Guy Pearse in ‘Death Defying Acts’ and ‘I Could Never Be Your Woman’ starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd. She also appears in Joe Wright’s feature ‘Atonement’, alongside Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, scheduled for release in Ireland in September.
Oscar winning producer/writer/director Peter Jackson has written the screenplay with collaborators Phillippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, the team behind the successful Lord of the Rings adaptation. Shooting is scheduled to being in October 2007.
Produced for DreamWorks and Film4, producers are Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Aimee Peyronnet. DreamWorks acquired the rights to Sebold's book in association with Film 4.
Executive producers for Film 4 are Tessa Ross, Ken Kamins and Jim Wilson.
