Jackson talks about King Kong

Peter Jackson talks about King Kong, his devotion to the project, movie lenght, and how it was his dream project since he was a kid.

I cried when I saw the original King Kong," says Peter Jackson. "I wanted to become a film-maker the moment I saw it.

"Actually, I wanted to become a monster-maker first," Jackson corrects himself, "because I didn't really know what directing was. But I wanted to create that sort of imaginative experience because, for me, that film does what entertainment should. It captivates you. It sweeps you away to another place but it also affects you emotionally. It's the reason I'm in the film business."

"The sense of responsibility has been great because I'm remaking my favourite movie," he says. "I just wanted to try to step in the footsteps of the original. I wanted to do something that was as entertaining today as the original was back in 1933."

Then Peter Jackson talks about the so famous King Kong movie lenght.

"The length of a film is not really a science," he explains. "You budget for a certain length and you make plans for that, but ... I don't know what to say. We shot the script and kept trimming back. I mean, we shot a lot more than what ended up in the movie."

Jackson screened a finished version which ran to 187 minutes. "We said, listen, we don't know whether this length is an issue for you but we want to have your feedback," he recalls. "They liked it and didn't have a concern about the length at all."