How Peter Jackson Turned the Tables on Hollywood-- UPDATE 5/4!

UPDATE 5/4: DreamWorks in association with Film 4 has won the bidding for Peter Jackson's big-screen adaptation of Alice Sebold's best-selling book The Lovely Bones, Variety reports, committing at least $65 million to the budget. Deal reunites Jackson with DW's CEO Stacey Snider, former chairman of Universal Pictures, who worked with the director on King Kong. "When you read an emotionally magical story that cries out to be turned into a major motion picture, you hope its winding path can find its way to the door of your own company," DreamWorks' Steven Spielberg said.

UPDATE 5/2: Sony, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks have bid to co-finance Jackson's Lovely Bones adaptation, according to the LA Times. 20th Century Fox and Disney had both been in the hunt early on, but dropped out over cost concerns. Jackson's deal stipulates that the studio must guarentee a production budget of $65 million and set aside $10 million for overruns. That doesn't include Jackson's directing and producing fees, which could put costs around $90 million. Add in marketing costs and "it's insanely expensive" said one top executive who passed on the project, estimating that a studio would have to spend around $150 million to make and market a picture with a dark, adult themes that would limit its commerical appeal. Jackson plans to start production this October in Pennsylvania, where the Alice Sebold story is set.

From 5/1: Two years ago, when I was working as an editor at Premiere Magazine, we decided to put director Peter Jackson on top of our annual Power List. Our rationale was more than just than the $3 billion worldwide that his Lord of the Rings trilogy had made or his unheard of $20 million against 20 percent of the gross deal he was receiving to direct Universal's King Kong. It was because Jackson was a true iconoclast, making movies on his own terms far away at his Weta studio in New Zealand and quietly reinventing how Hollywood did business. Back then, his manager Ken Kamins told us about a script Jackson was developing--the adapation of Alice Sebold's heartbreakingly haunting The Lovely Bones, about a 14-year-old girl who is raped and killed, but her spirits lives on, watching over her family and even her killer. Jackson had picked up the rights to the book himself and planned to develop it on his own and then let the studios come calling. This way, he'd be able to forecast the cost of principal photography, effects, etc. and then construct a realistic production budget. Jackson was tired of always owing studios scripts and pictures. He wanted to turn the tables and take control. And true to his word, that's exactly what he has done. Yesterday, his spec script for Bones, which he co-wrote with parnters Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, made the rounds in Hollywood with Jackson looking for a studio patner. A director auditioning a studio. Very unusual indeed. Here's what Variety had to say about it:

Jackson is something of an anomaly among big-budget helmers in that he's without a studio deal. That's given him the freedom to develop the script for "Bones" at his own pace.

The only major studio omitted from Monday's action was New Line. That's no surprise, given the ongoing legal dispute between the studio and Jackson's Wingnut Films over royalties on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. As a result of that feud, Jackson balked at directing "The Hobbit" for the studio.

New Line co-topper Bob Shaye has declared that he'll never let Jackson helm "Hobbit" during his watch, much to the consternation of Harry Sloan and MGM, which shares rights to the pic with New Line and wants to proceed with the project.

As of early Monday evening, the bidding for "Bones" had not yet begun in earnest. In addition to the majors, the project was sent to smaller companies, including United Artists.

Jackson scooped up the film rights to "Bones" from FilmFour in 2004. (FilmFour is still a partner on the project.) Since then, the filmmaker has insisted that "Bones" would be his next directing project after "King Kong."

(Photograph by Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)