Monkey business for Jackson

What next for a director who has pulled off the greatest challenge in cinema history?

Peter Jackson, whose landmark Lord Of The Rings trilogy has to be the front-runner for best picture Oscar - his rivals will most likely include Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, Cold Mountain and Mystic River - has already begun pre-production work on his version of King Kong.

Jackson has long been obsessed with Kong; he once cut up his mother's old fur coat and used it to make a model of the great ape.

The director has written a King Kong script with his longtime writing and producing partners Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens and has also begun consulting with British actor Andy Serkis.

Serkis, of course, helped create the computer-generated Gollum for Lord Of The Rings. Indeed, thanks to Serkis, you become mesmerised by the tortured, conflicted Gollum, whose addiction to the One Ring has turned him into a sneaky, emaciated creature.

Serkis's contribution gave him life and some sort of soul, and strange as it may sound, you care about what happens to Gollum, no matter how revolting. Now, Jackson wants Serkis to help the King Kong special effects team give the giant gorilla character - and a heart.

As Lord Of The Rings art director Dan Hennah observed:'It's not just going to be a generic gorilla.' Hennah and his colleagues have started working on a 'look' for Skull Island, the lost isle where the mighty ape fights for survival with dinosaurs and other monsters.

The team has also been poring over photographs of Thirties New York with an eye to designing the sets.

The picture will be shot in New Zealand next year and released late in 2005.

The cast is likely to include Naomi Watts in the Fay Wray role (from the 1933 original), and Ian McKellen.