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Yes, it's amazing how Kong '05 was supposed to be a faithful remake of the original................then they go and radically change all 4 prominent characters (including Kong himself). I honestly don't even know why they bothered to keep the same names seeing as the characters were so different to those in the original.

Its as faithful as it could get, and the characters had to be changed. Remember that this movie is loosely based on the P.D novel. It wasn't a true remake in that the original film is copyrighted by Time/Warner. Universal can't remake a film copyrighted by another company.
Universal's Kong dates all the way back to 1976 when they had that battle with Dino De Laurentis over who gets to do the remake of Kong. Dino won by paying RKO for the remake rights. Universal discovered that the original novel had fallen in the public domain and announced that they were going to base thier Kong "remake" on the novel (thier version was going to be called The Legend of King Kong). While they could do a film based on the P.D story they had to change things around so that they didn't mimic the copyrighted 33' film. So changes had to be made in which their version didn't mirror the original. Characterizations had to be changed. This is why Denham, Driscoll and Darrow et al were different characters from the original. Denham was an even more unsavory character in that version. Kong had to battle different Dino's then the ones he fought in the 33' version (a ceratops and a giant centipede), he had to attack a steam shovel rather then a L-Train etc. etc.
Anyway, Universal eventually cut a deal with RKO and Dino to postpone their "remake" for at least 18 months. They revived it in 96' and again, in the new script changes had to be made. Driscoll was a WW1 fighter pilot, Darrow was a British woman who came off as a bitch, Denham was sleazy etc. Kong couldn't fight one T-Rex/Allosaur so he fought a pack of them. PJ wanted to have Kong fight a T-Rex (his favourite scene from the film) but couldn't mimic the original film's one on one fight. So he combined that fight with the concept of the Kong vs 3 Triceratops fight from the novel. He had Kong fight a flock of bat creatures rather than a Pteranodon. He had an Elasomosaur attack one of the sailors in Kongs cave, rather then having Kong fight it. etc.
When it was revived again in 05', in the new script changes again had to be made. This is why the characters and certain scenes were different then their 33' counterparts. They had to be. Driscoll was now a playwright. Denham was still greedy but not as unsavory as the earlier script versions. Darrow was a vaudvillian actress. etc. Kong attacked a tram rather then the L-Train. The men encounter a pirhanodon in the swamp rather then a Brontosaurus. They encountered a charging ceratops and a bronto herd in the jungle rather then a Stegasaurus. etc.
So remember PJ couldn't do a 100% authentic remake. He had to make changes to certain scenes and characterizations because of copyright issues. So a happy go lucky Denham. A surly first mate Driscoll. A innocent screaming her head off Darrow, a vicious monsterous Kong, was never going to happen because of that.