With less than two months left before King Kong hits theaters, Hollywood Reporter has announced that Howard Shore, the composer who created the amazing, award-winning music for The Lord of the Rings, has left the King Kong production.

"I have greatly enjoyed my collaborations with Howard Shore, whose musical themes made immeasurable contributions to 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy." said Jackson. "During the last few weeks, Howard and I came to realize 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."

James Newton Howard, the man behind the music for all of M. Night Shyamalan's films and Collateral, will take over for Shore. This is the second time in the last couple of months that a major director and composer have split over creative differences. Not long ago Danny Elfman dumped Spiderman 3 over a dispute with director Sam Raimi.

Although Elfman's departure seemed less amicable than Shore's, we have yet to hear Shore's side of the story. More importantly, what is it about Shore's musical genius that didn't click with Jackson? Are big name directors beginning to lose their collaborative faith in score writers? Maybe this is just a bad year to be an Oscar-winning composer.