News for Oct. 27, 2005

Jackson pays monster fine for taking 'King Kong' over budget

10/27/05, 8:04 pm EST - Xoanon

The film director Peter Jackson has been forced to pay a fine running into millions of dollars for going massively over budget on his latest project, King Kong. Jackson, the man who set Hollywood alight with his epic cinematic trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, has included an array of blockbusting special effects in the film, which alone are estimated to cost as much as $32m (£18m). The fine for reaching an extraordinary total budget of $207m is expected to be split between Mr Jackson himself and his production company. The News of King Kong's extra weight and girth - the running time, originally intended to be about two-and-a-half hours, has shot past the three-hour mark - seems to have been greeted, however, with nothing but excitement and pleasure among executives at Universal Pictures. [More]