Heartland

Peter Jackson to remake King Kong


New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson will remake the classic King Kong when he completes his Lord of the Rings trilogy later this year.

For Jackson, it's a childhood dream.

"I'm making movies today because I saw this film when I was nine years old. It has been my sustained dream to reinterpret this classic story for a new age," Jackson said.

The new version will be filmed in New Zealand.

Prior to embarking on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson had been working on the initial pre-production stages of King Kong.

The screenplay is based on the original story by Merian C Cooper and Edgar Wallace, which became the classic 1933 RKO Radio Pictures film, directed by Cooper and Ernest B Schoesdack.

The RKO version of King Kong has been designated by the United States Library of Congress as one of the 100 greatest films and chosen by that organisation for permanent preservation as a national treasure.

Visual effects for the new version, scheduled for release in 2005, will be created by Lord of the Rings Oscar-winning Weta Workshop. - Sapa-AFP