Jack Black is going ape with The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.

The New Zealand filmmaker has cast Black as Carl Denham, the showman who captures the giant ape in Jackson's update of King Kong, due out in December 2005, Universal Studios said.

Black will co-star with Naomi Watts, previously announced as the female lead.

Jackson - whose The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won 11 Academy Awards in February - said he has wanted to work with Black since he saw him as a smart-mouthed record-store clerk in 2000's High Fidelity.