Monday, April 20, 2009

Stanley Tucci as "George Harvey"

The first still for Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones.

USA Today has the first shot.

A fine first choice for a reveal it is. It's both sad and sinister and, if you haven't read the novel, probably intriguing too. (I currently have Tucci predicted for Supporting Actor but the Oscar race is neither here nor there at this point). The question that hovers over this movie is this: can Jackson marry his 00s era facility with epic f/x grandeur to his tinier idiosyncratic 90s artistic impulses? And,, if he can, will that union live peacefully with Alice Sebold's gripping yet sentimental novel?

The other image which you can see at Empire I shan't show you in detail because it functions as an advertisement for that website rather than this movie. It's a fairly simple reflective sky shot, Saoirse Ronan in Heaven (she plays the lead character who is murdered at the beginning of the story, hence the title). The image is so blank that your mind wishes to project the movie's title over the clouds, creating a forthcoming poster. But this is where Empire places their gigantic watermark, sending an odd message. This isn't "Peter Jackson's Empire Online". It's Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. But then again, Peter Jackson's Empire Online could be a fun curio. What would he do to the magazine if he were in charge?
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