NEWSWEEK EXCLUSIVE: 'Trying to Top 'Lord Of The Rings' Would Be...Foolish,' 'King Kong' Director Peter Jackson Tells Newsweek

NEWSWEEK EXCLUSIVE: 'Trying to Top 'Lord Of The Rings' Would Be...Foolish,' 'King Kong' Director Peter Jackson Tells Newsweek

- Obvious In '70s Version That Kong Was A Guy In A Monkey Suit, Says Colin Hanks, Who Appears In The Remake -

NEW YORK, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Superstar director Peter Jackson, whose "Lord of the Rings" trilogy won 17 Oscars and grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide, discussed his latest project, "King Kong," with Senior Editor Jeff Giles during Newsweek's exclusive visit to the New Zealand set of the epic adventure earlier this fall. "To live the rest of your life trying to top 'Lord of the Rings' would be a foolish and unsatisfying thing to do. So you set your sights on making a thoroughly entertaining movie so that people are not disappointed. It is highly unlikely 'King Kong' will ever make more money than 'Lord of the Rings'," Jackson says in the December 6 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, November 29). Co-writer Philippa Boyens disagrees: "For the record, 'Kong' is going to kick 'Lord of the Rings' ' a--! It will!"

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041128/NYSU004 )

With "King Kong," which is due in theaters next December, Jackson hopes to bring the Kong myth to a generation that's allergic to black-and-white movies, confuses "King Kong" with "Godzilla" and never saw the original, just the campy '70s remake, Giles reports. "I watched some of the Jessica Lange version. It's painfully obvious that it's a guy in a monkey suit. I mean, he's literally walking around, looking in windows and going, 'Where's Jessica Lange?'" says Colin Hanks, who plays a new character -- long-suffering assistant to obsessive movie director Carl Denham (played by Jack Black).

Whether or not Jackson's remake ever achieves anything like the permanence of the original, it can certainly improve on some things -- the animation of Kong, for starters. It can redress the dated, if not racist, portrayal of the islanders who watch Kong get dragged off in chains, Giles writes. As for the performances in the original, actor Adrien Brody (who plays playwright Jack Driscoll) puts it best: "Fay Wray was fantastic, but [otherwise] the acting is pretty atrocious in parts of it."

On the set, Black plays director to the hilt, calling cut and ad-libbing some effusions, Newsweek reports. "If we could just do one more for luck" -- this is a Jacksonism, and there are suppressed smiles all around -- "and let's bring it down a little in the eyes." Later, Black explains: "My main job on this movie is not hamming it up too much. My natural tendency is to clown, so, yeah, [Jackson] has told me on a few occasions, 'You need to relax the eyes'."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6594604/site/newsweek /

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Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041128/NYSU004
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Source: Newsweek

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