Orchestra's work on 'King Kong' score in doubt

The future of music recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for Peter Jackson's film King Kong is in doubt.

The music was written by Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore, who wrote the score for The Lord of the Rings, and who flew to this country to conduct the work.

But Jackson said yesterday that he and Shore had "differing creative aspirations" for King Kong and had decided amicably to let another composer score the film.

NZSO chief executive Peter Walls said he had spoken to the film's production company, Big Primate, yesterday and been told nothing was certain at this stage about the future of the orchestra's music for the movie.

"We did a week's worth of recording about a month ago for King Kong. We were due to do some more next week," he said.

"I'm assured by Peter Jackson and his associates that they were totally happy with the performance of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and, in fact, Peter is apparently in the process of writing to the players to reassure them that that's the case, right now.

"So it is just a matter of there being some sort of disconnect between the score and the film that led them to this decision."

The NZSO now had no free days until the end of the year, so it would not have been possible for it to record any of the new music for King Kong.

Jackson said he had greatly enjoyed his collaborations with Shore, but "during the last few weeks, Howard and I came to realise that we had differing creative aspirations for the score.

"I'm looking forward to working with James Newton Howard, a composer whose work I've long admired, and I thank Howard Shore, whose talent is surpassed only by his graciousness."

King Kong will be released on December 14.

- NZPA