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Young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan will star alongside Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling in the New Zealand film adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestselling novel The Lovely Bones.
Ronan will play Susie Salmon, the murdered girl who watches over her family -- and killer -- from heaven, Variety magazine reported.
Ronan, 13, has five movies under way or awaiting release, including Death Defying Acts, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce, Atonement with Keira Knightley and Vanessa Redgrave, and I Could Never Be Your Woman, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd. Nip/Tuck star Joely Richardson shares the silver screen with her in the upcoming Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Twomey.
At present she is filming The City of Ember, with Bill Murray.
Wellington director Peter Jackson wrote the adapted screenplay with his longtime collaborators Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh.
Jackson is set to begin filming The Lovely Bones in October in Pennsylvania and New Zealand for Dreamworks, and Paramount will distribute the film worldwide next year.
Producers are Carolynne Cunningham, Jackson, Walsh and Aimee Peyronnet.
- NZPA
