Recent Questions

Before getting down to business, a public service announcement: the Pasadena Pops are looking for a stage manager/intern for their Jerry Goldsmith concert on August 2 (call 818-792-7677 for tickets) and two concerts subsequent. This entails "calling the concert," giving cues for lights and microphones, telling people to get to and from the stage. You know, like Scooter on the Muppet Show: "Fifteen seconds to curtain, Mister Goldsmith." Call Chris Daniels at the above number if you think you've got what it takes. Response to last weekend's barrage of news was favorable, but I did get a few follow-up questions, which I have also answered personally. For the interested parties, here's some relevant information.

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Firstly, Batman and Robin: Everybody seems to hate this movie, but they want to know when an Elliot Goldenthal score album might be released. Elliot indicated in an interview in FSM (the next issue, printing now) that there would be one, but not until 6-8 weeks after the song album was released. (They want to give the song album some time without any competition, mistaken-identity or otherwise.) Other information seems to confirm this. So, I would assume we'll see a Batman and Robin score CD some time in August. (It's Speed 2 for which there will be no score album at all at this time.)

Of this writing I do not have a date for the album to Contact, but as I mentioned there will be a score album with around 45 minutes of Alan Silvestri's score. Silvestri's business manager, David Bifano, told me he had just mastered it and that it would be out shortly after the film's release; so, I guess we are looking at late July. I do not know when it might be released overseas.

I've been asked if we plan to cover the music to Face/Off by John Powell, one of Hans Zimmer's Media Venturers. I still haven't seen this film, but everyone tells me it's the coolest of the summer. We hope to schedule an interview with Powell soon, pending availability.

Regarding the new film music recordings on Varese Sarabande produced by Robert Townson: Here's the complete slate (Royal Scottish National Orchestra, cond. by composer, unless noted): scheduled for July 29 areTo Kill a Mockingbird (Elmer Bernstein), Patton/Tora, Tora, Tora (Jerry Goldsmith), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Alex North, cond. Jerry Goldsmith, National Philharmonic at Abbey Road), and Psycho (Bernard Herrmann, cond. Joel McNeely). Forthcoming but with no dates set yet: The Sand Pebbles (Goldsmith), Torn Curtain (Herrmann, cond. McNeely), The Magnificent Seven (Bernstein), The Great Escape (Bernstein), Citizen Kane (Herrmann, cond. McNeely, including Herrmann's "Salaambo Aria" performed by Janice Watson), and Out of Africa (John Barry, cond. McNeely, including unreleased cues and the Adagio from the Mozart piece used in the film).

I got a "desperate" type letter from a gentleman trying to identify from which Jerry Goldsmith score came the music in the Judge Dredd trailer. (He had narrowed it down to The Vanishing and The Shadow.) This was actually an original piece composed by Goldsmith specifically for the Judge Dredd trailer. (He was scheduled to score the film at that time but could not because of another commitment.) An orchestral recording cond. by Joel McNeely is available on the Varese Sarabande compilation, Hollywood '95. Glad to help folks, that's why I wake up in the morning.

"Does It Exist" Questions

Fly Away Home exists only on a promotional CD which Mark Isham had pressed last year to try and drum up interest in the music for the Academy Award nominations. Try placing an ad in rec.music.movies of Film Score Monthly to obtain a copy, but good luck—it's scarce.

There was no album of any kind for Matilda, score by David Newman.

Willow (James Horner) is still available as a European pressing (on Virgin) from some of the specialty soundtrack mail order dealers. Try the links on the site—a good one is Footlight Records, http://www.footlight.com.

Ghost in the Shell (Japanese animation): I don't know of any U.S. release. I would assume there are Japanese albums, but this isn't really my field.

There are currently no plans for an expanded Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom CD. It's now available as a Japanese and German import only, around 40 minutes. For one thing, the only tapes available at this time are 24-track masters which would require expensive remixing. There are no plans to do an Indiana Jones box set, because Warner Bros. Records has the license for the third film's soundtrack for another two years. Basically, it would have to be too complicated a deal and Lucasfilm is not, to my knowledge, pursuing it at this time.

Tron (Wendy Carlos) is being held up by legal problems, probably between Disney and Sony. (Disney made the film, but Columbia—a division of Sony—issued the LP in 1982.) All I know is that people who have asked Sony about licensing the album have been told that it is tied up right now.

Suspiria: I checked the search engine at http://www.filmmusic.com (you can too! http://columbia.digiweb.com/~ellenbe/srch-example.cgi) and it says that this Goblin score came out on an Italian CD, Cinevox CDCIA-5005. I don't know how complete it is, or if it's still in print. See the "links" section for some of the soundtrack dealers.

Other Cool Stuff

Jim Auman had some great news about an upcoming DVD to The Witches of Eastwick from Warner Bros. As listed in a new-releases catalog:

WITCHES OF EASTWICK (ASP/VSDA/TR/PN; AC3; music only track) - WA - D11741 - 08/26/97 - $25

In other words, what we've got coming up is a DVD of The Witches of Eastwick with the complete John Williams score isolated in stereo on one of the alternate audio tracks. (The music is long out of print on CD.) Cool, no? Jim expressed his wishes that Superman would shortly see this treatment. However, it's been my understanding that the visual elements to Superman are not in very good shape—the existing laserdisc looks like shit, for example. As they say, garbage in, garbage out, and so Warners is not rushing to issue Superman on DVD—the last thing they need is people going, "These DVDs look lousy," when it's the fault of the condition of the movie, not the medium. Hopefully one day this fine film and terrific John Williams score will get the proper restoration and treatment they deserve.

Regarding Superman and the column on it last week, based around a letter from Herbert Kaplan on the longer TV cut of the film, one netizen reports that at least one guy on the Net has been selling this extended edition on video. His address is Vid97@aol.com; the film as shown on TV is on two tapes and costs $23—I have no first-hand information and cannot be held accountable for people getting ripped off.

Also, Simon Walmsley reported that the extra footage in the American television cut is also found in the Australian TV version: "The Trevor Howard scene mentioning the Phantom Zone by name, the irrigation by the diverted water, and the scenes where Superman enters Lex's lair only to be assaulted by fire, freeze, water, bullets etc one after the other—all these sorts of things were in it every time I've seen it on TV (which is a lot!)." Just FYI, y'all.

I was asked how it is possible for one to just "stop by" a recording session, as with Starship Troopers. Um, well, membership has its privileges. I live in Los Angeles and know a good deal of composers, studio personnel, agents, production people, etc. simply from editing and publishing Film Score Monthly for over half a decade. From time to time they very kindly let me sit in on sessions. In general, no, these are not open to the public.

If Mark Loughlin is out there, please write me—I misplaced your E-mail address and had a letter to foward to you, a response to one of your columns. Thanks!

Finally, two recent links to check out:

An article on Lalo Schifrin's recent film music concert in Denmark: http://users.cybercity.dk/~ccc7447/lalo.html.

Material on the new score recorded by Michael Giacchino for the Dreamworks SKG computer game to The Lost World—recorded orchestrally and not using any of Williams's themes. See http://www.jamisongold.com/dwi/Games/LostWorld/making/sounds.cgi.

Back Monday with our regular programming! Remember, if you have film music questions, send them my way: lukas@filmscoremonthly.com.