Peter Jackson has been trying to get a remake of King Kong greenlighted since before LoTR. Guess it's not hard to get the money once you turn out a blockbuster trilogy....
Jackson was very fond of the original version and his remake is trying to stay closer to that story line and is set in the 1930s.
Andy Serkis, who was the voice and movement reference for Gollum in LoTR, is not only going to be "Lumpy" the ship's cook, but he did all the movement reference work for King Kong.
