Peter Jackson's King Kong!

In an official press release and after years of rumour, LOTR Trilogy Director Peter Jackson has been confirmed to be helming a remake of the classic "King Kong" for Universal immediately after finishing work on "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King". Jackson, along with 'Rings' writers Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens, will pen and produce the flick with a 2005 release being targeted. Shooting on 'Kong' will take place in New Zealand and once again FX house Weta will be handling the visual effects work.

en met WETA in huis moet het toch ook te doen zijn, toch?
alhoewel het altijd moeilijk blijft om een beest te animeren met haren, da's toch iets anders dan een Gollem.
alhoewel, Sully van Monsters Inc en Mighty Joe Young zagen er ook goed uit.
Ben alleen benieuwd of mensen hier wel warm voor lopen?
Iedereen kent het verhaal toch al?

The Dominion Post exclusively talked with director Peter Jackson about his next project - the remake of the classic monster movie. The NZ$200 million budget (about US$90 million) flick will begin mid-2004 with script work on the project by Jackson and his two co-scribes starting this October. Two-thirds of the story is set on the mysterious Skull Island near Sumatra so jungle locations are already being looked at around the country, the last third is set in 1930s New York though will be filmed in Wellington (as shooting in the real Big Apple has been deemed too expensive) - "We will build somewhere in the Wellington area. We'll just find some flat land and build a big back block set of New York streets and then use our computers to extend the buildings, make the streets longer and the buildings higher. It may just be a field somewhere on someone's farmland". Most of the crew will be local New Zealanders but various international actors will of course populate the film

Speaking with Onfilm magazine, Peter Jackson talked a bit about the script for the remake and how its going to change from his original 1996 first draft now that he's had both the 'Rings' experience under his belt and co-writer Philippa Boyens has come aboard - "We can do a complete rewrite. Now that Philippa has joined the team, it's a chance to start over. The basic storyline will be very similar [to the 1996 draft] but the scenes, the sequences and the detail will be very different. [I don't like] the flip, smart-arsed tone of our old script. We are better writers now than we were in 1996. This new version will be based on the 1933 movie, but not on our 1996 script. This movie will be so much better than the 1996 film would have been. In hindsight, fate has been kind to us". Jackson also confirmed 2/3 of the film will be set on Skull Island.

www.musicfromthemovies.com reports that LOTR composer Howard Shore will re-team with Peter Jackson for the remake.

Director Peter Jackson is eyeing Aussie starlet Naomi Watts ("Mulholland Drive", "The Ring") to follow in the immortal steps of Fay Wray and Jessica Lange - becoming the blonde captee of the giant ape in "King Kong" according to The Hollywood Reporter. After a meeting late last month in London, it now seems that Jackson has officially offered the lead role to Watts for Universal's epic remake of the 1933 monster movie classic. Watts would play Ann Darrow, an American actress who makes a living performing in Broadway song and dance shows in Depression-era New York. Like the original film its expected that much of the action will be set on Skull Island and we will see the giant ape take on a number of prehistoric foes. Shooting begins next year in New Zealand based on a script by Jackson and his "Lord of the Rings" co-scribes Philippa Boyens & Fran Walsh which they begin penning in November once work on "Return of the King" wraps. A Christmas 2005 release slot is locked in.