AceShowbiz -

Finally snatching a young talent to fill in the blank, filmmakers of "The Lovely Bones" have signed 13-year-old Irish actress Saoirse Ronan to play the lead role of Susie Salmon in the project alongside Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling.

Adapted from Alice Sebold's bestselling novel of the same name, pic centers on Salmon who is murdered and finds herself in the afterlife, observing her family on Earth. As she watches her family grieve for her and her killer prepare to murder again, she struggles to balance her desire to find revenge on the killer and to have her family recover from her loss.

Filming is due to begin this October in Pennsylvania and New Zealand with most of the studio shooting to be carried out in the latter one. Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson is set to direct from the adapted script he write alongside longtime collaborators Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh for Paramount Pictures to distribute worldwide.

Ronan, daughter of "Veronica Guerin" star Paul Ronan, first made her way in show business through TV series of "The Clinic" and "Proof" before venturing into the big screen in "I Could Never Be Your Woman." Also securing roles in "Death Defying Acts" and "Atonement", the starlet is learned to about shoot Fox-Walden's "City of Ember" this summer alongside Bill Murray and Tim Robbins among others.