ack Black is a man we have seen do most everything. He is a man with no shame, a man who knows comedy and probably the last person you would expect to be cast in a remake of King Kong, yet here he is and he pulls the role off without a hitch.

However, this begs the question as to whether or not Black now considers himself a drama man. Does he see more drama in his future thanks to his part in King Kong?

"This is the biggest budget movie I have ever been on, but it is still the same job," said Black. "You want to work with cool people, great minds and creativity and Peter Jackson was just an artist I wanted to hang out with. You want to spend time with people you really respect. It's not just the making of the movie, you're spending a year of your life with that person, you want it to be someone you enjoy their company."

Black's head seems to be screwed on straight even though some of the roles he plays tell us otherwise. The chance of working with Peter Jackson was his primary motivation for accepting the role in Kong, and he has a funny story about how it came about.

"I talked to my agent a few months before hand and said, 'God I want to be in a Peter Jackson movie. Can't you make it happen? You're a power agent!' She was like, 'Dude, everybody wants to be in a Peter Jackson movie.' I was like, 'You're right, let's just forget it,' and then he called and asked me to come and interview for King Kong and yeah, I would have come and interviewed for Turds on Ice if he was directing it. Luckily it was one of the most amazing parts."

Amazing indeed. Black plays the iconic role of Carl Denham, a role originally played by Robert Armstrong in the 1933 version of the film. As for Black's portrayal of Denham he was given a specific way of approaching the character.

"They told me they were looking for a young Orson Welles type of filmmaker who is really cocky, filled with a youthful exuberance and I was like, 'Yeah, so I can be like a genius?' and they were like, 'Yeah, he's a genius, but he is more like a frustrated genius. He's like the unsuccessful version of Orson Welles.' So he's got this chip on his shoulder and this hunger to be hailed as a genius."

Jack Black = frustrated genius? Maybe in the movies, and if it is a comedic genius I give it the greenlight, but how hard was it for Black to play more of a straight role? A role that didn't call on his Jack Black-isms.

"Every movie presents its challenges, this one was tricky because it was set in 1930s and it's not easy to improvise in a 1930s style of talking. So I stuck totally to the script and I really had to trust totally in Peter and Fran and Philippa and their vision. I would do it and say, 'Yeah, how was that?' and they would lead me toward the perfect take. It was a different experience as far as trying to become this other guy."

For those of you intent on seeing Black in his traditional roles you won't have to wait much longer as his hopper is filling up with comedic bits and he even lets us in on a few that may be down the road.

First off, for you fans of "rock", Black and his longtime partner Kyle Gass will be taking to the big screen in Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny, a film Black tells us they are finishing right now, "We are going in to do a reshoot of the finale. I thought the finale was kick ass, it was basically just small scale, it's us in a club playing a song, The End. Then we watched it and we were like the movie is so exciting and ridiculous up to that point the world has to explode or something has to happen. It was my first time writing and producing so it was a learning curve. I have also learned there is no shame in going back and reshooting. A lot of times the best stuff happens so we are going to go and explode the world."

Beyond that he was sporting a snazzy mustache as he is also currently in production of Nacho Libre with Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess. Finally he tells us a failed pilot he made just might be making its way to the big screen.

Black tells us, "[Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab are] writing a draft of a Heat Vision & Jack screenplay, which is based on a failed pilot but we still think it could be a good movie. Basically a Six Million Dollar Man type of story when the sun hits me... Oh forget it..." he stopped, but thanks to some urging he gave us the rest of the story, "I'm an astronaut who got too close to the sun, I come back to Earth and something's wrong with me but whenever the sun hits me I become the smartest man in the world. I don't even know where they are starting from to tell you the truth. I know it will be good."

So for Jack Black the future looks fruitful as what may become the biggest movie of 2005 is getting ready to be released and his future slate is full.

King Kong opens everywhere on December 14, 2005.