King Kong named top movie at Empire awards

Andy Serkis, played character Lumpy the Cook as well as providing motion capture for the title character, Kong. Picture / Reuters

LONDON - Multi-million dollar Hollywood blockbuster "King Kong"  has been named best movie at the Empire magazine film awards.

The remake of the classic movie about the giant ape with a heart beat "Crash", which won a host of Oscars, "Sin City", "War of the Worlds" and "Star Wars Episode III".

"This was absolutely, really needed because we were doing really badly this year," said actor Andy Serkis, who played Kong.

"This film was made with a lot of passion and a lot of love, the script was crafted, it was a very political film - and it only cost $270 million (NZ$421m)," he quipped as he accepted the award.

Johnny Depp was named best actor for "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory" while Thandie Newton took the best actress award for Crash.

The unlikely winners of the best director award were Steve Box and Nick Park for the animated comedy "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit".

"That's just ridiculous," Park said after beating the likes of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson for the gong.

"Pride And Prejudice" was voted best British movie while "Team America: World Police" was named best comedy.

The awards, voted for by readers of Empire magazine, were a better reflection of what filmgoers really liked than the Oscars, said editor-in-chief Colin Kennedy. 

- REUTERS