Academy Award-winning "Lord of the Rings" composer Howard Shore will reportedly continue to work for director Peter Jackson after completion of the trilogy. "Peter has asked me to work with him on 'King Kong' and I am looking forward to our further collaboration", Howard confirmed to Music from the Movies. King Kong, to be written by Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, is aiming for a 2005 release date. [More]

Stax here with a script review of King Kong! Director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) has been trying to remake the 1933 adventure classic for several years now. He almost made it back in 1997 but the project stalled after rival studios beat Universal Pictures to the monster punch by producing Godzilla and Mighty Joe Young, respectively. (A concise overview of how the project fell apart can be found here.) It was announced last week that Jackson's first post-LOTR film will be King Kong. The film is budgeted at $110 million dollars and will film in Jackson's native New Zealand (outside Wellington, specifically) sometime mid-2004 for a 2005 release. (The climactic sequence set in New York City will be filmed in New Zealand as well; Depression-era Manhattan will be recreated as a set.) [More]