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  1. My review of IT, for anyone who's interested:

    https://moviemusicuk.us/2017/09/12/it-b … wallfisch/

    Jon
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      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeSep 12th 2017
    Horror scores are not my favourite listening passtime at the best of times, and mentions of Penderecki have me scrambling for the hills. I'm sure the old nursery rhyme chestnut will work wonders, but overall I think I'll give this a miss.

    Still in two minds about seeing the movie.
    With the possible exception of the old Salem's Lot, and -amazingly- the incredibly creepy The Fog, King translates really poorly to screen I find.
    I could never understand why the 1990 It film was held in such high regard.
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
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      CommentAuthorBobdH
    • CommentTimeSep 13th 2017 edited
    Martijn wrote
    I could never understand why the 1990 It film was held in such high regard.


    Agree. It's all reputation, and no quality. Not just because it's low budget and made for tv, it's simply bad acting (except for Curry), bad dialogue, no mood. I caught a bit of it on tv the other day and it's laughably bad.

    But I think it's gotten its reputation because it was that film you saw as your first horror, for which you were actually too young to see, just enough violence for your innocent mind, and just macabre enough to haunt your nightmares. It's the film no one actually saw save for the announcements when it came on, or you managed to see the first 10 minutes before your bedtime, which got everyone talking on the school yard, which built its reputation. Tim Curry's performance then sticks in your mind, but when you finally DO see it, it's revealed to be a boring and laughable amateur mess. The first time I saw it as a teenager, I was severely let down (by the lack of gore), it was more the "ooohhh, I'm seeing the legendary IT!" idea that kept me going.

    Which is unfair towards the novel of course, because the concept and execution of it in book form is great! This really deserved a proper film all along, and it was too bad it took them so long because of the "classic" (or rather: cult) status of that failed original. After all those glowing reviews I'm actually really looking forward to seeing them getting it RIGHT.

    By the way, I think the problem with King adaptations is mainly because he's such a popular mainstream author who licenses just about anybody to make a film out of his novels, resulting in many amateurs to have a go at it. But that's not to say his novels by definition get horrible movies - think of Misery, Carrie, Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile or The Shining. Or even Apt Pupil and 1408. They're not all masterpieces, but they're certainly not bad. Sure, the problem with adapting a King is usually that his books are strongest in simply living with those characters for a while than they are in actual plot development, which doesn't translate as well, but the concept of his books are usually strong and get a PROPER director (not a Tommy Lee Wallace) and he can get it right.
  2. I love the concept of dollar babies where (with some caveats ) young filmmakers are allowed to learn the chops by adapting his short stories just for a dollar.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  3. Martijn wrote
    Horror scores are not my favourite listening passtime at the best of times, and mentions of Penderecki have me scrambling for the hills. I'm sure the old nursery rhyme chestnut will work wonders, but overall I think I'll give this a miss.

    Still in two minds about seeing the movie.
    With the possible exception of the old Salem's Lot, and -amazingly- the incredibly creepy The Fog, King translates really poorly to screen I find.
    I could never understand why the 1990 It film was held in such high regard.


    You didn't like Carrie or The Shining?
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    •  
      CommentAuthorBobdH
    • CommentTimeSep 13th 2017
    PawelStroinski wrote
    I love the concept of dollar babies where (with some caveats ) young filmmakers are allowed to learn the chops by adapting his short stories just for a dollar.


    Jup, I really like that one too and it shows how generous a man King is - as long as it's those charming student shorts nobody really sees but film students can play around with. As soon as you get into films that, y'know, people will actually see, maybe he should be a bit more careful with who gets to make what.
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeSep 13th 2017 edited
    Martijn wrote
    Horror scores are not my favourite listening passtime at the best of times, and mentions of Penderecki have me scrambling for the hills. I'm sure the old nursery rhyme chestnut will work wonders, but overall I think I'll give this a miss.

    Still in two minds about seeing the movie.
    With the possible exception of the old Salem's Lot, and -amazingly- the incredibly creepy The Fog, King translates really poorly to screen I find.
    I could never understand why the 1990 It film was held in such high regard.


    The Fog? I think you mean Darabont's The Mist, a brilliant film IMO. ( gotta love a Lovecraft vibe wink )

    As for King films that translated excellently to screen...

    The Shawshank Redemption
    The Green Mile
    Stand By Me
    The Dead Zone

    None of which are what you'd call horror films.

    DePalma's Carrie is probably the best along with the aforementioned The Mist by a horror definition.

    I liked the old Salem's Lot TV series ( aside from an excellent score by Christopher Gordon the remake is woeful )

    I sort of liked the IT TV series at the time but on a recent viewing it doesn't stand up except for a nostalgic pleasure. I'm surprised it's held in high regard. I loved the novel.

    Kubrick's The Shining is a shit adaptation. Of course Jack Nicholson is watchable as hell but he was totally wrong for an honest adaptation of the novel. It needed someone who could convincingly go from reasonable holding it together recovering alcoholic to crazy mad and big Jack is already at 100% all the way.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  4. A lot of the success of the Darabont films (saw Shawshank and Green Mile many times, not The Mist) is about how big a rapport he has with King. Darabont made a dollar baby King totally loved.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
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      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeSep 13th 2017
    Many people appear to be ready to consume whatever's thrown at them as long as it has certain labels on it wink one of them is 'stephen king' it sells a lot wink
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
  5. I think the thing with the It miniseries really is generational, probably a lot of kids saw that, at an age when it came across as truly scary despite being anything but, and the image of Tim Curry as Pennywise is a pretty indelible one. I guarantee you the majority of the people who claim to love it haven't seen it in ages, because if they did they would see just how lame pretty much all of the non-Tim Curry stuff is.

    In any case, I wouldn't even say it's held in high regard, I think the consensus has been revised to "iconic but mediocre" by now tongue
  6. My review of BLADE RUNNER 2049, for anyone who's interested:

    https://moviemusicuk.us/2017/10/10/blad … ns-zimmer/

    Jon
  7. The Nostalgia Critic review of "IT" (which also mentions the scoring, though not nicely):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLN1FwiqGwc
    The views and opinions of Ford A. Thaxton are his own and do not necessarily reflect the ones of ANYONE else.
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      CommentAuthorCaliburn
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2017
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2017
    Although he's delivered great stuff for years, he's really breaking through now. Fascinating to see a rising composer star in the making! (let's just hope he doesn't become another Cliff Eidelman).
    I am extremely serious.
  8. Eidelman reportedly ruined his career by being not exactly the nicest person in the room. I know for a fact that Wallfisch is a very nice guy.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2017
    Really? Eidelman has always appeared super-nice in the interviews I've seen him. Unless he's become more cynical in the last 15 years due to lack of high profile assignments.
    I am extremely serious.
  9. Rather the other way around. Reportedly after Star Trek he started demanding the highest profile assignments and essentially nobody knew who he is to give him another big film, so... Perhaps Erik knows more?
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2017
    PawelStroinski wrote
    Rather the other way around. Reportedly after Star Trek he started demanding the highest profile assignments and essentially nobody knew who he is to give him another big film, so... Perhaps Erik knows more?


    I didn't know this? I guess he was the George Lazenby of film scoring.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  10. I think someone more knowledgeable may explain this better. But what I heard was that what killed his career so early was that he got a bit of an ego.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2017
    film composer loses his career for getting a "bit of an ego"... even more frustrating after these horror stories coming out of Hollywood recently. Guess its only the low-level employees who have to abide by any sort of code of conduct.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2017 edited
    PawelStroinski wrote
    I think someone more knowledgeable may explain this better. But what I heard was that what killed his career so early was that he got a bit of an ego.


    Sounds bizarre. Otherwise, how would composers like Bernard Herrmann and Leonard Rosenman (and even Ennio Morricone) have the careers that they did? A different time, maybe.
    I am extremely serious.
  11. Maybe some people just cross certain lines that Herrmann and Rosenman didn't or didn't often enough.

    I know of one composer -- I can't name him since this was from a private conversation -- but he's a talented guy, does good work, but because he's hard to work with and damn near refuses a temp score, he's worked almost not at all in a good while now.


    By the way, a funny story from a somebody in the music industry who told me about it:

    Apparently Rosenman has trouble on that un-aired pilot for "Falcon's Crest" and he was asked to make changes. He completed the score, left the scoring stage, hopped into his pricy car and drove off.
    The views and opinions of Ford A. Thaxton are his own and do not necessarily reflect the ones of ANYONE else.
  12. Thor wrote
    PawelStroinski wrote
    I think someone more knowledgeable may explain this better. But what I heard was that what killed his career so early was that he got a bit of an ego.


    Sounds bizarre. Otherwise, how would composers like Bernard Herrmann and Leonard Rosenman (and even Ennio Morricone) have the careers that they did? A different time, maybe.


    John Barry reportedly sometimes too. And Elmer Bernstein (I'd love to read the letter he sent Demi Moore after getting fired from The Scarlet Letter). And even Jerry Goldsmith.

    The thing is if you act that way with your agent and just demand essentially what would be the next Star Wars just because you did one big film... then you don't have a career.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2017 edited
    Thor wrote
    PawelStroinski wrote
    I think someone more knowledgeable may explain this better. But what I heard was that what killed his career so early was that he got a bit of an ego.


    Sounds bizarre. Otherwise, how would composers like Bernard Herrmann and Leonard Rosenman (and even Ennio Morricone) have the careers that they did? A different time, maybe.


    I think so. Rosenman and Herrmann certainly had a downward turn in their later careers though in the case of the latter a resurgence ( unfortunately short lived due to his untimely death ) thanks to DePalma and Scorsese.

    As a darling of European cinema Morricone doesn't need Hollywood.

    I've heard that John Barry burnt some bridges by telling Weinstein to 'fuck off' or some other expletive, I think it was something to do with Playing By Heart, HW didn't like Barry's score and much of it was replaced by Christopher Young. It starred Angelina Jolie who is a Weinstein accuser and again I think it was on this film that her allegation originates.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  13. Jon Burlingame, I think, said that it didn't happen with Barry, even if it WAS Weinstein who rejected Barry's score. He says that an altercation happened between him and Eliot Goldenthal, but it didn't have any impact on Goldenthal's career.
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2017
    PawelStroinski wrote
    Jon Burlingame, I think, said that it didn't happen with Barry, even if it WAS Weinstein who rejected Barry's score. He says that an altercation happened between him and Eliot Goldenthal, but it didn't have any impact on Goldenthal's career.


    Yes, the story with Goldenthal and Weinstein is rather famous.
    I am extremely serious.
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2017
    PawelStroinski wrote
    Jon Burlingame, I think, said that it didn't happen with Barry, even if it WAS Weinstein who rejected Barry's score. He says that an altercation happened between him and Eliot Goldenthal, but it didn't have any impact on Goldenthal's career.


    No. You're correct about the Goldenthal incident ( I think HW threatened him physically? ) but it also happened with Barry, a story that has been going around before the Goldenthal encounter.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  14. From an FSM thread:

    according to Peter Biskind’s book Down and Dirty Pictures, the occasion was a test screening of Julie Taymor’s film Frida at the Lincoln Square Theater at 68th and Broadway. The film tested well. Standing in the lobby after the audience had filed out, Weinstein asked Taymor what she thought of the audience’s response. “They enjoyed the movie,” Taymor said. “The film succeeded.”

    This, apparently, was not the response Weinstein was looking for. “You are the most arrogant person I have ever met!” Weinstein screamed, spittle flying out of his mouth. “Go market the fucking film yourself!” Weinstein turned to Taymor’s agent, Bart Walker, and told him to “get the fuck out of here.” He then turned to Taymor’s companion, Elliott Goldenthal. “I don’t like the look on your face. Why don’t you defend your wife, so I can beat the shit out of you.” Finally, he turned to a group of Miramax executives and picked them off, one by one. “You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired.”
    The views and opinions of Ford A. Thaxton are his own and do not necessarily reflect the ones of ANYONE else.
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2017 edited
    Yes that's it. If true, there's something Trump-ian about that behaviour, in more ways than one.
    I am extremely serious.
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2017
    what a monster.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.