The Lovely Bones is a 2009 supernatural drama film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay he co-wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, and Saoirse Ronan.

As Susie walks home through a cornfield, she runs into her neighbor, George Harvey, who coaxes her into an underground "kid's hideout" he has built.

After seeing the bloody bathroom and her bracelet hanging on the sink faucet, Susie realizes she never escaped the underground hideout because Harvey murdered her.

Meanwhile, Susie's classmates Ruth and Ray are present when Harvey drives up to dispose of the safe at a sinkhole dump site on the Connors' property.

Producer Aimee Peyronnet had sought to attract studio interest to the manuscript, and an insider informed Film4's deputy head of production, Jim Wilson, of the project.

[23] In July 2002, Channel 4 shut down Film4, causing Hollywood studios and producers to pursue acquisition of feature film rights to The Lovely Bones, which had spent multiple weeks at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list.

[27] In April 2004, producers Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens entered negotiations to develop the project.

"[29] By January 2005, Jackson and Walsh planned to independently purchase film rights and to seek studio financing after a script had been developed.

[30] Jackson explained he enjoyed the novel because he found it "curiously optimistic" and uplifting because of the narrator's sense of humor, adding there was a difference between its tone and subject matter.

[31] Jackson foresaw the most challenging element in the novel to adapt was the portrayal of Susie, the protagonist, in her heaven, and making it "ethereal and emotional but not hokey.

New Line Cinema was excluded from negotiations because of Jackson's legal dispute with the studio over royalties from his The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

[35] Jackson sought a beginning $65 million budget for The Lovely Bones, also requesting from studios what kind of promotional commitments and suggestions they would make for the film adaptation.

[5][42] Shooting in parts of Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties, including Hatfield,[43] Ridley Township, Phoenixville, Royersford, Malvern and East Fallowfield,[44] lasted a few weeks.

"[46] In November 2009, Jackson said that he re-shot new footage of Harvey's death scene after test audiences said it was not violent enough "to give people the satisfaction they needed".

[39][47] Jackson wanted to stay within constraints that would enable the movie receive a PG-13 rating, so that it could attract the widest possible audience, despite the violent nature of some scenes.

[50] The film was originally set to have a wider United States theater release on December 25, 2009 (Christmas Day),[51] as part of a campaign to build its momentum into January 2010.

[3] Claudia Eller and Ben Fritz of the Los Angeles Times felt that it did poorly at the box office in the first few weeks of its release because of average reviews and negative word-of-mouth.

The site's critical consensus reads, "It's stuffed full of Peter Jackson's typically dazzling imagery, but The Lovely Bones suffers from abrupt shifts between horrific violence and cloying sentimentality.

[63] Freer emphasized the "bold, daring original filmmaking, with arguably more emotional and intellectual meat to chew on than either the Rings trilogy or Kong.

[63] Richard Corliss of Time wrote that "through [Peter] Jackson's art" and Ronan's "magic", the "obscenity of child murder has been invested with immense gravity and grace" and "like the story of Susie's life after death, that's a miracle.

"[64] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone felt that the film was "conveyed" in a "remarkable performance" by Ronan and described Tucci as being "magnificent as a man of uncontrollable impulses" to "help Jackson cut a path to a humanity that supersedes life and death.

"[65] Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film 2/4 stars, remarking that while "[Peter] Jackson gets the thriller scenes right", the "conceit of Susie trapped in a DayGlo world between the one she left and her final resting place, imparting lessons on coping with death, feels preachy.

"[67] Honeycutt said that Jackson had transformed Sebold's "startling, unique novel about the aftermath of a terrible murder" into a story that's more "focused on crime and punishment.

But [Peter] Jackson is too enamored with the idea of mixing heaven and the heebie-jeebies, so he's made the skeevy equivalent of a Mitch Albom book with some pulp fiction pressed between its covers."

Stephanie Zacharek, of Salon, viewed the film as being "an expensive-looking mess that fails to capture the mood, and the poetry, of its source material" because it has "good actors fighting a poorly conceived script, under the guidance of a director who can no longer make the distinction between imaginativeness and computer-generated effects.

"[69] Todd McCarthy, of Variety, felt that Jackson had undermined the "solid work from a good cast" with "show-offy celestial evocations" that "severely disrupt the emotional connections with the characters.

"[70] Joe Neumaier, of New York Daily News, described Jackson as having "siphoned out all the soulfulness" that made the author's "combination thriller/afterlife fantasy a best-seller" and that the film was "a gumball-colored potboiler that's more squalid than truly mournful.

"[68] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4, calling it "deplorable", and criticizing the apparent message that Susie's murder eventually made her happier.

[71] The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) reported that 24 objections were made to the rating given to The Lovely Bones, more than for any other movie in 2010.