Peter Jackson won an Oscar for the final Lord of the Rings

He and partner Fran Walsh have bought the rights to Alice Sebold's best-selling book about the murder and rape of a young girl.

Jackson will not begin filming it until he completes King Kong, and it is not expected to be released until 2007.

The film will be produced in conjunction with Film Four.

The story is told from the viewpoint of the murdered teenager as she sees from heaven how her family are coping with the tragedy.

"It's the best kind of fantasy in that it has a lot to say about the real world," Jackson told trade paper Variety.

Alice Sebold's novel became a bestseller around the world

"You have an experience when you read the book that is unlike any other. I don't want the tone or the mood to be different or lost in the film," he told Variety.

Jackson and Walsh will once again work with their writing partner Philippa Boyens.

He said that they had decided to finance the project themselves in order to escape the pressure of working for a studio.

"We've woken up every single morning for the past six years with people at studios awaiting a script or a cut of a film. We want time to discover what this film is," he added.