come anticipate PETER JACKSON'S DAM BUSTERS with me

Bet the dogs name is changed.

: O

who?

fixed

uh - all his films prior to Lord of the Rings...?

Lynne Ramsay may have mixed feelings about Peter Jackson's forthcoming remake of King Kong, if she can bring herself to see it at all. The image of a big, hairy monster laying waste to everything in his path might just bring back bad memories. The feted Scottish director of Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar recently suffered the loss of a long-cherished project - an adaptation of Alice Sebold's best-selling novel The Lovely Bones - only to see the mighty Jackson lumber in and claim it for his own, like a great big monkey scooping up a squealing blonde. Actually, the order of events depends upon who you listen to: some accounts have it that Ramsay walked out and will be replaced by Jackson, while others contend (arguably more persuasively) that Ramsay was ousted when Jackson expressed an interest.

The Lovely Bones was first suggested as a project to Ramsay in 2000, soon after her auspicious debut with Ratcatcher, and before she confirmed her position as reigning queen of the UK arthouse scene with the befuddling, beautiful Morvern Callar. Sebold's novel - a murder mystery told from the point of view of the 14-year-old female victim - had yet to hit the big time too. FilmFour had optioned it on the strength of its first 100 pages, which they received only after every major Hollywood studio had read and rejected them.

Ramsay was duly hired to adapt the novel with Liana Dognini, who had also collaborated with her on the Morvern Callar script. Even after FilmFour shut down its production wing and cancelled most of its outstanding projects, it expressed its intention to press on with The Lovely Bones. While promoting Morvern Callar in 2002, Ramsay spoke about the project, expressing enthusiasm about working in America for the first time and going so far as to hypothesise that there might be a role for Morvern Callar star Samantha Morton. However, with FilmFour in crisis, it lacked a strong financial backer and impetus seemed to slow.

Meanwhile, The Lovely Bones became an international bestseller and an American media fetish object. In the gossipy inner chambers of the internet, obsessive fans of Sebold's novel queried Ramsay's directorial credentials and fretted over a possible betrayal of "the best book of all time" (to quote the evidently well-read Blinkgrl310). Inevitably, the Hollywood studios that had once turned their noses up at Sebold's work began to sniff around it instead. For a while, rumour had it that Steven Spielberg's company, DreamWorks, was seeking to acquire the property, and that Spielberg was keen to direct it himself. Despite her passion for the novel, her long commitment to it, and its tonal resonances with her own work, Lynne Ramsay's claim on The Lovely Bones began to look shaky. Respected auteur she might be, but were the big American studios going to deliver a potential mainstream hit into the care of a little-known Scot with only a couple of obscure art flicks under her belt?

Sure enough, this April, Variety reported that Lynne Ramsay was "out" as director (without specifying whether this exit had involved jumping or being pushed), and that Peter Jackson, along with his partners Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, was in talks to make The Lovely Bones as his follow-up to King Kong. As Variety pointed out, this was "not entirely shocking", given Jackson's stated aim to return to smaller-scale film-making. Before committing to King Kong, Jackson and his team had been considering a modest project entitled As Nature Made Him, about a New Zealand doctor working in gender reassignment. Though the unprecedented fee they were offered for King Kong persuaded them that blockbusters weren't so bad after all, they remained keen to find a follow-up on the intimate scale of Jackson's 1994 film Heavenly Creatures.

With its focus upon female adolescence and family dysfunction, The Lovely Bones does have echoes of Heavenly Creatures - a marvellous work that has been somewhat overlooked in the rush to lionise Jackson for The Lord Of The Rings films. And, like Heavenly Crea-tures, with its stunning claymation dreamscapes, The Lovely Bones would permit Jackson to indulge his fantasy leanings. Significant parts of the novel take place in heaven, from whence murdered schoolgirl Susie Salmon observes her family and friends, and their efforts to solve her murder. (Indeed - poignant to recall - it was the question of how to portray the afterlife that was preoccupying Lynne Ramsay when she spoke about The Lovely Bones at Cannes 2002.)

FilmFour has thus far withheld comment on the Variety story. So has Jackson's office. (Only the aforementioned internet talkboards remain lively on the subject - Blinkgrl310 hasn't commented thus far, but according to a certain Theo, the change in personnel is a good thing because "Peter Jackson is a genius", whereas Ramsay makes "arthouse movies" which are by definition "unwatchable". Wonder where Theo stands on Heavenly Creatures? Or did his awareness of Jackson only begin with The Lord Of The Rings trilogy?)

Ramsay has also kept quiet and is still listed on the Internet Movie Database as the director of The Lovely Bones. Jackson, meanwhile, has an entire monster movie to get out of the way before he's free to start on The Lovely Bones.

Still, even if he doesn't commit to it, his sway is such that his rumoured interest in the project will be enough to raise its market value sky-high.

However this saga pans out, it does highlight the difficulties faced by directors seeking to retain control of their projects while crossing into the mainstream (as well as the drastic long-term consequences of the collapse of a sizeable, artist-friendly domestic studio such as FilmFour). In the UK, and on the international festival circuit, Ramsay is seen as a big-hitter - but put her up against the likes of Spielberg and Jackson, and she's rendered almost as powerless as Sebold's heroine.

There are those of us who might contend that Ramsay is well out of it, on the basis that The Lovely Bones is one of the more overrated works of fiction of the past 10 years, and Ramsay's subtle talents deserve a finer vehicle. The Lovely Bones suggests a custom-made studio tearjerker, rather than the sort of hushed, mysterious tone poem at which Ramsay excels.

Nonetheless, it's difficult to imagine the heartache that must accompany the sacrifice of a project held so close and dear for so long. At least Morvern Callar waited until her boyfriend was dead before stealing his unpublished novel, pasting her own name over his and stealing his glory. Whatever the real story behind this snarl-up -
dignified handover, or daylight robbery - it is to hoped that it doesn't wholly dissuade one of our most gifted directors from sharing her talents with a wider global audience.

IT was to be the dream project for one of Scotland's leading film talents - but will now be made by the director of one of the most successful trilogies of all time.

The film of Alice Sebold's best-selling novel, The Lovely Bones, is to be made by Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the Lord of the Rings films, it was announced yesterday.

Lynne Ramsay, the Glasgow director had, until recently been charged with bringing The Lovely Bones to the big screen.

But Jackson has taken over the project. The New Zealander has bought the rights to the book from FilmFour, and with Fran Walsh, his screenwriter wife, will begin work after their current movie - a remake of King Kong.

Ramsay, the director of Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar, announced she was working on a version of the book - about the afterlife of a murdered teenager - more than two years ago. She was advanced in her preparations - she had written a script, had begun scouting for locations in the US, and was considering her cast.

The Scot had even met Steven Spielberg and his Dreamworks company to discuss finance, but the project appeared to stall when FilmFour, which owns the rights to the book, scaled back its production in 2002.

Then, in April of last year, it emerged that Jackson, fresh from his critical and commercial success with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was interested in bringing the book to the screen, and that Ramsay was no longer associated with the film.

Last night, a spokeswoman for FilmFour denied Ramsay had been dropped from the project in favour of Jackson, who made Heavenly Creatures, a similarly eerie low-budget film starring a youthful Kate Winslet.

It appeared to those inside the film industry that Jackson's "bigger" name - as far as box office success was concerned - had triumphed over the allure of Ramsay's arthouse cachet.

"We were working with Lynne for two years up to March or April last year, but then we went our separate ways, in an amicable way, " the spokeswoman said.

"These things happen in the film industry all the time and she was not 'shafted'. They parted company with Lynne and then they took up Peter's interest in the project."

Ramsay has, so far, not commented on the film or her next project. A friend denied last night that she was upset by the turn of events, adding: "She won't let this affect her, she knows how the industry works.

"I know she is writing a new film and she always has great ideas: she's an auteur and it is for the best she is writing her own scripts. It doesn't take a genius to work out what happened in this case."

Ramsay is known for her beautiful cinematography, scripts and use of non-professional actors.

Her early short films, Small Deaths, in 1996, and Gasman, 1998, both won the Best Short Film prize at the Cannes film festival and her debut feature, Ratcatcher, was judged best British film of 1999.

The Lovely Bones movie, coproduced with FilmFour, will be released in 2007, with Jackson as director and producer.

Jackson said of the story:

"It's the best kind of fantasy in that it has a lot to say about the real world.

"You have an experience when you read the book that is unlike any other. I do not want the tone or the mood to be different or lost in the film."

He added: "The Lovely Bones is that rare combination - a story of personal tragedy that is heartbreakingly sad, even brutal, and yet infused throughout with acts of love, understanding and compassion.

"We're all looking forward to working on this extraordinary project."

Tessa Ross, a producer at FilmFour, said: "It is with enormous pleasure that I announce this partnership.

"I love this book and am an enormous fan of Peter's filmmaking. I believe it will be an exceptional creative marriage.

"I have every faith that Peter and his collaborators will bring great vision to Alice's beautiful novel."

In the book, the murdered character of Susie Salmon observes the living from a heaven that closely resembles her school playground.

Ms Sebold said: "I am honoured that Susie Salmon will get to hang out in New Zealand with the psychedelic trio of Jackson, Walsh, and (co-writer) Philippa Boyens.

"I have a distinct feeling that the four of them are going to get along fabulously."

hopefully she'll do 'the dambusters' now jacko has cried off.

xpost

Jackson, 45, has been involved in a legal battle over payment from The Fellowship Of The Ring. Shaye has now said the director will never make another movie for New Line so long as he is in charge.

Shaye says "He [Jackson] got a quarter of a billion dollars paid to him so far, justifiably, according to contract, completely right, and this guy, who already has received a quarter of a billion dollars, turns around without wanting to have a discussion with us and sues us and refuses to discuss it unless we just give in to his plan."

New Line will pick a new director for Lord Of The Rings prequel The
Hobbit which they hope to release in 2009."