LOTR's Peter Jackson to direct updated 'King Kong'

Posted Monday, March 31, 2003 at 4:07 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

It's official. The man that successfully brought Tolkien's Middle Earth to life is reviving one of the greatest creatures in cinema history -- King Kong.

Peter Jackson, along with his partner Fran Walsh and Universal Pictures, will bring the story of the gigantic gorilla to the big screen in 2005. "No film has captivated my imagination more than King Kong. I'm making movies today because I saw this film when I was 9 years old. It has been my sustained dream to reinterpret this classic story for a new age," he said.

Jackson's King Kong will be based largely on the original 1933 film release. Work, including filming in his native New Zealand, begins after the release of Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King.

This story has been long in the making. In fact, we first reported on Jackson's rumored interest in the movie almost one year ago.