Murder and hope with "The Lovely Bones"

Oscar Winner Peter Jackson, the director of Lord of the Rings, has taken on a new project. Alice Sebold's bestseller The Lovely Bones is a story about a teenage girl named Susie Salmon who was brutally raped, murdered, and dismembered. Throughout the story she watches, from her personalized heaven, her family and friends deal with their grief.

Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan is playing Susie. Dealing with such serious and emotional material, this role was challenging for Ronan.

"It's a very serious subject matter and it was always going to be a challenge for me because I hadn't done anything quite that deep before," said Ronan, "But, when we dealt with very emotional, intense scenes, there would be a lot of discussion between me and Pete and Fran, and Philippa who are the writers so we were on the same page."

Ronan as a person is a very upbeat person. However she says that this almost made it easier to play a character who is surrounded by such heavy gloom.

"Sometimes it's quite easy to be the opposite to how you are in real life for me," she explained, "I thought about was something I loved so dearly being taken away from me."

Ronan wanted to wait to read the book until after she had made the movie. "I just really wanted to focus on the screenplay version, and also I felt like I was a little bit too young to read it at the time, I was 13," she said, "the book is little bit more visual and a bit more violent than the film, so it just made sense."

Ronan read the book this year and fell in love with it, "I think because I had been through the whole experience of making the movie and living through the story, I think that helps me to really connect with the book, and to understand the book fully. And plus, the story itself kind of makes you go there as well because I think anyone with a heart is going to be affected by it in some way, good or bad."

The book The Lovely Bones is a very emotional book, Ronan said that in reading it has changed her outlook on the world and life.

"The Lovely Bones just made me appreciate what I have. You know, that I'm lucky to be here; I'm lucky to have the amazing family that I have. It's also made me more aware of things that go on in the world, these awful crimes that are committed every day."

Such a serious book deserves a serious director and a serious writer. Ronan says that she's never been exactly star struck, but working with Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson was a rewarding experience.

"I absolutely loved working with them. They're brilliant," said Ronan, "Fran is one of the kindest, sweetest women I have ever met. I love her. She's funny. She's creative. She's just wonderful. I love working with Pete as well, as director and as a friend. He was very hands on. He likes to be very involved with his actors and he's always there."

This movie is very promising with such a talented people working on such a wonderful story. Ronan says that the ultimate message that we should all take away from it is hope. "When Susie arrives in the in-between, she doesn't want to go forward, which would mean accepting her death," she explains, "She wants to be back on Earth with her family and she knows she can't do that. And to get there, you know, it's about her love for her family and not the hate and vengeance that she has for her murder. So, yeah, so it's hope."