Jackson's The Return of the King won 11 Oscars in 2004

Jackson has called in a replacement for Howard Shore, who did the soundtrack for his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The director said he took the decision because he had "differing creative aspirations" from his friend Shore.

Composer James Newton Howard, whose work includes The Sixth Sense, will take over the project.

The big budget film, which stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody, is due to have its premiere in New York on 5 December.

Team reunited

In a statement, Jackson said: "During the last few weeks, Howard and I came to realise that we had differing creative aspirations for the score of King 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."

Shore recently worked on The Aviator and A History of Violence

Shore won best original score Oscars for two of the Lord of the Rings movies - The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.

He also won the best original song Oscar for The Return of the Kings's Into the West, which he shared with co-writer Fran Walsh and performer Annie Lennox.

Shore's successor's credits include Batman Begins, The Village, The Fugitive and Waterworld.

Jackson is bringing the 1933 classic up to date with his Lord of the Rings writing team, effects company and cinematographer.

Andy Serkis - who provided the human model for the computer-generated character Gollum in the Rings trilogy - fulfils a similar function for the computer-generated giant ape.