UPCOMING FILM SCORES

I agree Martijn, the music for the recent Batman films is not what I call good film scoring. More like the opposite.

And apart from a few creative outbursts, Zimmer has done very little to give me musical enjoyment the last 10 years.

Superman a la Zimmer, no thanks.

I love the way Zimmer and JNH redefined the BATMAN universe with their scores. It would have been terribly boring if they went the same route as the previous films (which would have been out-of-place in Nolan's universe, anyway).

So I think it's great that we'll get a -- hopefully -- new sound for the SUPERMAN films, instead of the "Williams Lite" thing that Ottman provided for SUPERMAN RETURNS (although the Williams fan in me would love to hear Zimmer take on the famous theme in his music).

And finally, it doesn't have to be in the same style as BATMAN. Could be something completely different. Time will tell.

So you are saying that instead of using the one A-list composer who seems to bother to innovate on every single project he works on (except maybe his paycheck projects like Madagascar) should be replaced with composers who will write predictable, traditional orchestral music (not saying Yared and Peterson don't write great music, but it certainly isn't "different")? How does picking Yared or Peterson fit with "getting something different"? Zimmer is basically the only one who has a real chance of bringing something different.

You guys are complaining about the minimalism of the new Batman scores but that was only done because that's the kind of music Nolan wants in his films. Apart from Nolan films, Zimmer has never been one to avoid using big, recognizable themes.

A-list doesn't mean anything. I think most of us here could name plenty of B or C-list composers who should take most, if not all the stuff Zimmer & team are getting.

I've gone through the promos Yared sent me and he would routinely not go the entirely predictable route. But yes, do tell us how familiar you are with James Peterson's body of work to say he'll write something "predictable", especially considering only 15 credits on IMDB (with one missing, so 16), including only three movies and the rest being shorts and documentaries.

I'm more familiar with Zimmer's work than his, but I'm sure you're a James Peterson expert. So let's hear a mini description of each score he's done, that makes you so knowledgable you can say he'll do the predictable. Some composers have track records; Peterson has barely even walked half the track.


How is getting Yared different than Zimmer? Well, I can randomly pick a dozen Zimmer cues, and then randomly pick ONE Yared cue. The difference will be night and day. But if you're a staunch Zimmer-ite, there's no point. It's like those folks jumping in the Burwell/"Gangster Squad" thread -- same crap given every time: "Oh, you haven't heard a note" / "maybe he'll do something different this time!" (which, of course, is the thing said every time for somebody who has a track record).

To quote Southall:



And, in the end of the day, let us say Yared DOES write a predictable score; it goes everywhere we thought it would, it does not surprise us, it does not push any boundaires. It's still something "different" from Zimmer", and I'll take boring, predictable Yared any day.

I don't think we can say anything about what the film will be untill it's actually here (and hence what the score will or should sound like). From the few pics that have leaked, it's certainly nothing like the 'bright blue costume' thing of yesteryear, however.

I don't disagree that the Zimmer approach was a good choice, but I think it's impossible to say whether the music of the previous approaches would have been out of place in Nolan's universe. Position creates power, and a popular film drags everyone's musical preferences along with it. They seem out of place because the Nolan universe is partly defined by a Zimmer sound, but I venture that sound might have been equally unimaginable had Warner Bros, Harry Potter style, insisted the franchise carry the last popular theme associated with it (Elfman's perhaps)...

Bah. Humbug.

OMG, and anybody who has Denny Zeitlin's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" has 100% of his film music!

Or anybody who has Ray Cook's "Careful, He Might Hear You", has 33.3% of his film music.

Is that the one that is VERY Vaughan Williams influenced?

Vaughan Whatnow?
(I have no clue. I know very little by the man. )

In fact I insist that you MUST listen to both works.

That one's ripped off from something by Thomas Tallis.

Really? At least he gives credit unlike, say, James Horner who doesn't tag his score to GLORY as Fantasy On A Theme by Sergei Prokofiev

I'm sure James won't have to work too hard since he can just go and pick up the Powell scores he based Duplicity and The Tourist on and do it again.