"It Was Beauty Killed the Beast"

Considering the glut of bloated, lackluster remakes churned out by Hollywood this past year ("Around the World in 80 Days," "Alfie," "The Stepford Wives"), it's exciting to see a filmmaker the caliber of Peter Jackson ("Lord of the Rings") in the midst of remaking a movie near and dear to his heart, 1933's "King Kong." Obviously, the special effects will be state-of-the-art compared to Willis O'Brien's stop-motion creation of yesteryear (although that had its charm), but I'm particularly impressed with the casting of Jack Black as the opportunistic movie director, Carl Denham, and Naomi Watts as Kong's blonde squeeze. Now, that's inspired.

In Newsweek, Jeff Giles provides a fun glimpse at Jackson's enthusiasm in re-imagining one of the greatest monster movies of all time -- and one of the first films to illustrate the potential of cinema to transport audiences into the realm of the fantastic.