Adrien Brody is looking the worse for wear. The Oscar winning star is normally and rightly regarded as one of Hollywood's most elegant leading men. He's so smart and chic in fact that Esquire Magazine named him America's best dressed man and he's often seen modelling top of the range designer gear.

Today however 31 year-old Brody is dishevelled and dirty; his clothes might best be described a woebegone because they look as though the man wearing them has been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Which is just as it should be since he has been thrust into the sweltering primeval jungle of Skull Island where he's going to be fighting for survival against the elements and the world's most famous giant gorilla.

Alongside a glittering cast that includes Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Andy Serkis, Jamie Bell and Colin Hanks, Brody is caught up in a spectacular and scary game of cat and mouse with King Kong.

Near the summit of Mount Crawford, on the outskirts of Wellington, Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson and his crew have created an awesome world that is the jungle haunt of King Kong. And it's there that Brody and his fellow actors will attempt to lure Kong into their trap, ensnare the mighty silver back gorilla and take him in triumph back to New York.

So far the filmed scenes have called upon Brody and the other stars to draw upon their imagination as they use their acting skills to react to a Kong who isn't there. The obvious reason for that is simple. While Brody and the others are doing their stuff for the cameras in the middle of an impressive Skull Island set – the ancient buildings are decorated with human skulls and fossilised skeletons – the great silver back beast is being carefully and painstakingly created by digital computer down at the hi-tech studios. And it's not only the still to be unveiled digital Kong that the stars have to pretend to be terrified by, Skull Island is also home to a whole bunch of prehistoric creatures that will be computer generated.

At the moment though all that Adrien Brody has seen has been rough preparatory work that eventually Peter Jackson's brilliant team of whiz kids will transform into the mightiest, scariest and most convincing version of King Kong ever to stomp across the cinema screen. “I've been to the work shop and seen the look and we know the size of him,” says an obviously impressed Brody.

Significantly, Brody stresses that – apart from the enormity of his sheer physical presence – the key to Kong is the emotional impact that the great beast has to make; and he says that's where Andy Serkis, who as he did with Gollum in Lord of the Rings, has the crucial job of providing a living template for the gorilla. “Andy will be very helpful for the more dramatic, emotional stuff – particularly with Naomi,” says Brody. “I'm curious to see what he does because I'm sure he'll be amazing.”

Brody had been shooting The Jacket in Glasgow with Keira Knightley when he had been invited to meet with Peter, co-writers and producers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens while they were in London for the Bafta Awards. Amusingly the modest actor didn't consider for a moment that they might want him for the starring role in King Kong.

“I was under the impression that they were meeting actors for King Kong but I didn't know that they were pretty much hoping to have me, which was wonderful,” he says and a smile crosses his handsome features. “Even in the meeting though I wasn't sure. I didn't know how to phrase it and said.'You're interested?' And they said 'Oh yeah, we're very interested.' It was one of those conversations.”

Like the rest of the cast, Brody is a huge fan of Peter Jackson's work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and he concedes that a big part of the attraction for him has been the opportunity to work in a film that is so far removed from anything else he's ever tackled. “This is a very different process for me and I knew it would be something very challenging and very exciting,” he says. “If anyone is going to do a version of King Kong it would be Peter Jackson. So [being offered this film] was a no-brainer for me. I didn't have a script when we met and when I agreed to sign on. So it has been pretty exciting and things have been evolving on a daily basis.”