Peter Jackson, Lord Of The Oscars

"The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King" swept its way into history Sunday, winning 11 Oscars including three for writer, producer and director Peter Jackson.

The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith offered to give him a hand and helped Jackson carry one while doing his interview.

Jackson says, "I would love for you to, because it's difficult to hold all three of them. There you go. I think they're going to get heavier as the night wears on."

But it's a burden Jackson is willing to bear. He says, "I could carry these around for a few days."

There are only two other films, "Titantic" and "Ben-Hur," that are in the same company as "The Lord Of The Rings" with 11 Oscars.

"Incredible company to be in, isn't it? Unbelievable," Jackson says. "I would have never guessed. I thought with 11 nominations we would have won some awards but a clean sweep was out of the question. If I was actually doing something in the betting pool, I'd never bet for 11 awards. For sure, I would have lost."

Jackson says it was a wonderful experience to see awards going to the people he labored so hard with. "It's a night unlike anything I will have the rest of my life," he says. "No doubt about it. They are friends of mine. For most people, those technicians don't mean anything because they're not celebrities but for me they're the stars of this film because they're the guys that made it happen."

The work of writer JRR Tolkien made history yet again as the first fantasy film to win best picture.

Jackson notes, "I think we're more than a talking film. His themes of courage, of friendship, of faith, these are themes he gave us from the book and we tried to translate those into film. Those are messages of themes everybody can relate to today. I think it's way beyond fantasy, as real as most other films that get made."

Asked if he was sad that none of the actors from his cast was recognized with awards, Jackson says, "Yeah, sure. I would have loved to have actors get recognized but what can you do? You can't sound ungrateful. The best picture is wonderful from that point of view because that represents the efforts of everybody on the film. The film won the best picture because of the performances of those actors and the fact that people felt so emotional and connected to the films."

Having put his heart in this project for quite some time, Jackson adds, "It's been a great journey, hasn't it? Weird and strange and will never happen again but what a great climax. What a great way to win."

"The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy was a seven-year journey for Peter Jackson. He's going to take a short vacation before the start of his "King Kong" remake, starring one of last night's best actress nominees, Naomi Watts.

And who is going to play Kong?

Jackson says, "I was thinking maybe I would be good as the voice of Kong, if he talks."