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The Lovely Bones Home
In early 2010, Dreamworks Studios released “The Lovely Bones”, which was filmed around the Philadelphia region in 2007. The 1970s-era Steven Spielberg produced film launched the careers of Saoirse Ronan and co-starred Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Michael Imperioli . The motion picture, a film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel—a writer, also from Malvern PA—was directed and screen written by Peter Jackson, fresh from his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson, had complete creative control of this innovative film project, which is conveyed through a dreamlike lens to communicate a fantastical elegance of the afterworld. Filming was done in Chester and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania during October of 2007. Saoirse Ronan plays “Susie”, a teenager who goes missing on her way home from school. Susue’s family in the movie lived in this home, in addition to her friends and her killer lived just down the street . Susie watches over her family from the “In Between,” what might be better understood as purgatory, and narrates what happens to her family after her disappearance. Stanley Tucci, a New Jersey native was nominated for his riveting Oscar performance in The Lovely Bones.
“The Lovely Bones” home has been a private residence for 50 years. Due to recent circumstances, the owner placed the home on the real estate market at the end of February 2020. The home itself, situated on a unique peninsula lot, serves as the hub of the neighborhood with views that encapsulate a large portion of this Paoli Gardens neighborhood—ithe overwhelming reason why it was chosen by Peter Jackson for the film. More fascinatingly, the home also houses an 83-year-old woman who was swept away into a Hollywood fantasy when movie scouts approached her on her front porch one summer evening in July 2007. The culmination of the two makes for a feel-good, then and now viral human interest story. The residents and property owner are used to the attention as long as you respect their privacy, as they prepare to move on from the home that provided them with a once-in-lifetime cinematic memory.
The director’s artistic vision for the film, is to rewind the viewer back to a quieter time, the 1970s to this idealic main line Malvern neighborhood of Paoli Gardens to tell this tale. Over the course of the movie, many exterior scenes were shot in and around this Malvern Pennsylvania neighborhood, at the Bryan Avenue and Queens Avenue intersection, which was the Salmon’s fictional home in the movie. The downtown locale Jackson chose for the film took place in Royersford PA. The farm scenes where Susie’s body is discovered occurred at an abandoned farm in Chester Springs, PA. Other scenes were filmed around the Delaware Valley in locations like Granite Run Mall.
The movies’ centers around Susie Salmon’s family home and the close-knit, quiet suburban neighborhood where the suspected killer also lives, just down the street. The neighborhood was restored to that 70’s look and feel aesthetic for filming and much of the film focused on Susie’s family in their home. The interior scenes were mostly shot on a studio sound-stage;, however, the family dining scenes were shot in the home. The vintage 70’s brown wall oven from Susie’s home was purchased by the studio and used for the kitchen scenes with a camera often placed right inside the oven for a unique kitchen scene perspective. The exterior of seven neighboring homes around Susie’s home were revamped professionally to lend that same 70’s feel. Susie’s home received additional exterior details such as a brick back yard patio, which the owners use to this day.. Susie’s home was even professionally landscaped by an internationally known landscape architect. This home will be actively listed for sale on 02/23/2020 from12pm til 4pm, by the James Harner Group powered by eXp Realty. All are welcome to attend the open house and sample Betty Seeley’s home made chocolate chip cookies offered at the open house and relive scenes from the award winning movie “The Lovely Bones.”
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