Sympathy For The Gorilla

Here at Empire, we are prepared to make a firm prediction right now - King Kong will be the biggest big ape movie of 2005. Director Peter Jackson, Emperor-for-life of New Zealand and Middle Earth, has dropped a few more tantilising tidbits to the breathless hordes awaiting his next venture in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. First of all, he explained the relationship between his film and the 1933 classic that started it all. "We are not reinventing it," he said. "Our story follows the same structure. It starts in New York, goes to Skull Island, and there are dinosaurs on the island. Then it comes back to New York and there's the Empire State Building and the biplanes and the whole thing." As he has said before, he is concentrating on making the original film more "emotionally truthful". "I put that ahead of anything else, including technology and the realism of the effects," he added. We're guessing that the good people at Weta are still aiming for realism above all, but it's nice to know that Jackson is putting character high on his list of priorities. "Everybody's image of King Kong is that it's this amazing beauty-and-the-beast love story. And when you look at the original film, there is a sense that Kong is feeling an attraction toward Ann