Famed director Peter Jackson sat down with USA Today to talk about his upcoming supernatural drama The Lovely Bones, which hits theaters this Christmas.

Jackson talks about the dark theme of the book and the film which deal with a child being raped and murdered. "I never found the book to be bleak,” he said. “At times the story was shocking, and always it was told with unflinching honesty — and to some degree that’s what we’ve tried to do with the movie.”

He admits, however, that there are changes, but he hopes that fans of the book will “take delight in some of the twists and turns that we’ve made.”

The director also talks about the depiction of the girl’s “personal heaven”. A glimpse of the heaven can be seen above.