Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:21p.m.
By Ali Ikram
Peter Jackson's latest film The Lovely Bones has its world premiere overnight in London.
The movie, which producers delayed releasing until now with the hope it'll get an Oscar nod, is based on the best-selling novel by Alice Sebold.
At a press conference ahead of its first showing, Jackson found himself talking about a major theme in the film - life after death.
The Lovely Bones is a change of pace for Jackson after CGI epics like the Rings trilogy and King Kong. But he reckons this small movie just might be the hardest project he's attempted so far.
"You can't really label it as one thing or another, which is why it appealed, but it also makes for a difficult film because everyone likes movies to be packaged for a particular genre," he says.
The Lovely Bones is the grizzly story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped, murdered and dismembered. As her family struggle to come to terms with her killing and hunt her murderer, Susie Salmon looks down from heaven.
Jackson cast the 15-year-old Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, comparing her to a young Cate Blanchett.
"It was only when we started to do press and people started to talk about their reaction to the movie and their reaction to the performance that it really hit me," she says.
At a press call ahead of the premiere in London, Jackson admitted a belief in life after death - as did star Susan Sarandon.
"When you lose a limb you can have that phantom pain, and we were having that discussion that that is one of the signs that we have a soul."
The New Zealand premiere of The Lovely Bones is in Wellington in mid-December.
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