Howard Shore removed? Deja vu Saruman?

[Child of the 7th Age]

Reports are coming in that Howard Shore has been replaced by James Newton Howard to score the King Kong film. From Soundtrack.net: Sources in the film music industry have indicated to SoundtrackNet that Howard Shore's score to Peter Jackson's King Kong has been dropped. Hired to replace him is composer
James Newton Howard. Due out on December 14, the film requires over two
hours of music, which must now be written over the next few weeks.

There is no indication currently as to why Shore's score has been replaced,
and all indications are that most - if not all - of the score has already
been recorded in New Zealand. The replacement score will be recorded in Los
Angeles. More details to come as we get them.

TORN/KIKN: Is currently trying to independently confirm or deny this rumor.
However James Newston Howard's unofficial site also lists this news.

This is all conjecture but I can't help wondering.

This came in from theonering.net in an e-mail notification. Is this wild rumor or real? It seems strange to redo the soundtrack at this late date in the game, especially given the quality of Shore's work in LotR. Can anyone confirm or deny?

More importantly in terms of this site......I couldn't help thinking of what happened to Christopher Lee's character in the Two Towers. I always had the feeling that Jackson and Lee had some sort of personal falling out, and this influenced how Jackson handled the scenes of Saruman's demise in the movie, getting rid of scenes that should have been left in. (I truly feel there's no defense for removing this material from the theatrical version.) There is also the fact that Lee was also omitted from the ending credits of RotK and didn't have a sketch included as the others did.

If this Shore thing is true, is this another instance of personal feelings coming in between Jackson and another artist with less than desirable results? It's interesting that in both cases the people involved -- Lee and Shore -- were experienced artists who were perhaps less professionally dependent on Jackson than some of the others associated with the movies. Or am I barking up a wrong tree?