Shore leaves Jackson's King Kong
The Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore has left the production of King Kong, the eagerly anticipated project by his Lord of the Rings collaboratorPeter Jackson, just weeks before the film's scheduled cinema release.
Jackson said in a statement released on Friday that he and Shore were parting because of creative differences.
"I have greatly enjoyed my collaborations with Howard Shore, whose musical themes made immeasurable contributions to The Lord of the Rings trilogy," Jackson explained. "During the last few weeks, Howard and I came to realise that we had differing creative aspirations for the score ofKing Kong. Rather than waste time arguing with a friend and trying to unify our points of view, we decided amicably to let another composer score the film."
King Kong is Jackson's first project since finishing the mammoth task of adapting JRR Tolkien's epic for the screen. Numerous movie fans are wondering how he will remake the 1933 adventure classic, this time starring Naomi Watts and Jack Black.
James Newton Howard, the Hollywood veteran who recently scored music for Batman Begins and The Interpreter, will replace Shore. Time will not be on his side as music must be ready in time for December 14, when the film is due out in US cinemas.
Jeff Bond, editor-at-large for American trade magazine Film Score Monthly, told the Hollywood Reporter that the problem could have stemmed from Shore's artistic ambitions running against the demands of a big studio movie.
"Howard Shore is a guy who - particularly on Lord of the Rings and a lot of his scores for David Cronenberg - has very specific artistic ideas that he likes to express in a score," Bond said. "That can be problematic if the composer is potentially running up against the thoughts of a director. Part of the problem is that the bigger the project, the less the score has an opportunity to be creative." Shore composed music for all three Lord of the Rings films. He won Oscars for best score for the first and third, as well as best original song for Return of the King, together with Fran Walsh and Annie Lennox.