No Bones About It

Two industry giants are set to team up for the first time:

Pamela McClintock and Michael Fleming of Variety have the story:

Peter Jackson will make his next movie at DreamWorks.

Committing at least $65 million, DreamWorks, in association with Film 4, has won the bidding for Jackson's big screen adaptation of Alice Sebold's bestselling 2002 tome "The Lovely Bones."

Announcement came early Friday evening, capping a week long auction that had three other majors -- Warner Bros. Online Pictures, Universal and Sony Pictures -- vying for Jackson's project as well.

DreamWorks was a natural fit -- DreamWorks fought hard for the film rights to Sebold's book for several years ago before the rights went to Jackson. Also, Steven Spielberg has long wanted to work with Jackson.

And Jackson made his last movie, "King Kong," with DreamWorks CEO-co-chair Stacey Snider when [she] was still running Universal.

Jackson is set to begin lensing in October in Pennsylvania and New Zealand from a script he co-wrote with "Lord of the Rings" collaborators Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh...

"Bones," with its heart-wrenching storyline, is closer in tone to Jackson's 1994 pic "Heavenly Creatures". Sebold's book tells the story of a 14-year-old who has been raped and killed and now watches over her family and killer.

"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...

You can find out more here...

It will be interesting to see what Jackson will do with this intimate story...After spending his last 4 films, in very grand, larger than life settings..With this news, does it mean that Jackson is definitely out of the running to helm The Hobbit?