THE TOP FORTY COUNTDOWN 2003, PART FIVE

By Scott Bettencourt

Last year, in Part Six of the 2002 edition of this series, we profiled ten composers who seemed most likely to reach the Top Forty in 2003:

Klaus Badelt
Terence Blanchard
BT
Nick-Glennie Smith
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
David Kitay
Clint Mansell
Mark Mothersbaugh
Michael Nyman
John Ottman

Three of them -- Badelt, Blanchard, Ottman -- have joined the 2003 list. Understandably, one could easily consider this a classic self-fulfilling prophecy, since I personally wrote both lists. Judge it as you will, but here are ten more composers on their way up:

AGE: Unavailable
REPRESENTATION: Blue Focus
ONGOING FILMMAKER RELATIONSHIPS: Audrey Wells, Shawn Levy
FAN FAVORITE: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
TYPECAST IN: Comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Bring It On--68
2. Just Married--56
3. The Tuxedo--50
4. Big Fat Liar--47
5. Stealing Harvard--13
6. Confidence--11
7. The Broken Hearts Club--1

Though many talented composers work regularly in television, most of their scores unfortunately end up obscure and forgotten. Beck has developed a devoted following for his deft work on the deservedly beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and though none of the films he's scored have matched it in quality (Bring It On comes closest), he's working steadily in a variety of genres -- though, surprisingly, considering his greatest TV success, he has yet to score a horror film. And no, Just Married doesn't count.

WHAT'S NEXT: Cheaper by the Dozen, Saved, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star

AGE: 63
REP: Blue Focus
2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
RELATIONSHIPS: Godfrey Reggio
FAN FAVORITE: Candyman
TYPECAST IN: Arthouse films
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The Hours--41
2. Candyman--25
3. Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh--13
4. Hamburger Hill--13
5. Kundun--5
6. A Brief History of Time--2
7. Koyaanisqatsi--1
8. The Thin Blue Line--1

Probably the most respected serious composer to write regularly for the big screen, Glass has worked mostly in arthouse fare (like the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy) with rare ventures into openly commercial cinema like the Candyman series. Though his score for The Hours had as many detractors as fans, it earned him his second Oscar nomination and proves he can work within the confines of a big studio project -- especially impressive since his work followed rejected scores by two other respected composers, Stephen Warbeck and Michael Nyman.

AGE: 70
REP: Blue Focus
RELATIONSHIPS: Roman Polanski
FAN FAVORITE: Bram Stoker's Dracula
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Bram Stoker's Dracula--82
2. The Pianist--32
3. The Ninth Gate--18
4. The Portrait of a Lady--3
5. Death and the Maiden--3

Kilar's breakthrough score (at least, for American audiences) came over a decade ago with Bram Stoker's Dracula, which was hugely popular with film music fans and became a trailer music staple. He's a highly respected composer in Europe, both on the big screen and in the classical realm (his Exodus was used in the trailers for Schindler's List). Kilar has done only a few English language films since Dracula, mostly for Roman Polanski (including a lively Morricone homage for The Ninth Gate). Their work on the Oscar winner The Pianist showed the talents of both collaborators, though critics tended to ignore Kilar's fine, discreet score in favor of the Chopin compositions played onscreen. At the age of seventy, this Polish composer would be a surprising choice to break into the Hollywood A-list, but he definitely has the talent -- whether he cares enough about American success to try is another question entirely.

AGE: 33
REP: Blue Focus
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Boys Don't Cry--11
2. High Art--1

As a member of the band Shudder to Think, Larson co-wrote the scores to the indie dramas High Art and First Love, Last Rites. As a solo composer, he scored two critically respected low-budget films for Fox in 1999: the Cool-Hand-Luke-Goes-To-Boot-Camp drama Tigerland, which gave Colin Farrell his first lead role and proved to be Joel Schumacher's least unwatchable film in many years; and the stunning Oscar-winner Boys Don't Cry. Larson was originally set to rejoin Schumacher on the long-delayed Phone Booth, but he was ultimately replaced by Harry Gregson-Williams and receives only an "additional music" credit on that surprise hit. Despite this setback, Larson is staying in the game, scoring such prestigious projects as Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things (replacing Oscar-winner Anne Dudley) and Lukas Moodyson's devastating teen-prostitution drama Lilya 4-Ever, which was Sweden's submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar last year.

WHAT'S NEXT: Dirty Pretty Things, Prozac Nation

AGE: Unavailable
REP: Soundtrack Music Associates
RELATIONSHIPS: Ice Cube, Gary Sinyor
TYPECAST IN: Crime
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Friday After Next--33
2. Snatch--30
3. All About the Benjamins--25
4. City by the Sea--22
5. The Bachelor--21
6. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels--3

With his former partner, David A. Hughes, Murphy scored such wildly different films as the Zellweger-O'Donnell comedy The Bachelor, the smash-hit (at least in England) crime farce Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and the Merchant-Ivory spoof Stiff Upper Lips. Now working on his own, Murphy wrote an unusually eclectic score for the DeNiro drama City by the Sea, and his newest film is Danny Boyle's digital video zombie apocalypse 28 Days Later, due next month from Fox.

WHAT'S NEXT: 28 Days Later

AGE: 70
REP: Ingenuity Entertainment
6 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
RELATIONSHIPS: Brett Ratner
FAN FAVORITES: Bullitt, Amityville Horror, Dirty Harry
TYPECAST IN: Action, comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Rush Hour 2--226
2. Rush Hour--144
3. Bringing Down the House--129
4. The Amityville Horror--86
5. Sudden Impact--67
6. Enter the Dragon--47 (approx)
7. The Beverly Hillbillies--44
8. Money Talks--40
9. Magnum Force--39 (approx)
10. The Dead Pool--37

This Argentine-born composer has been scoring movies for forty years, but after a period where Schifrin's talents were underused on the big screen, he has returned to regular film scoring with Brett Ratner's action comedies and the surprise smash Bringing Down the House (as well as an onscreen cameo in Ratner's Red Dragon). With so many hits under his belt, Schifrin should be able to work as frequently as he wants to, and his early, jazzy scores like Mission: Impossible and Bullitt are as popular now as when they were written -- if only someone would have the savvy to hire him for the inevitable Mission: Impossible 3.

AGE: Unavailable
REP: Soundtrack Music Associates
RELATIONSHIPS: Tod Phillips, David Mamet
FAN FAVORITE: Heist
TYPECAST IN: Comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Old School--74
2. Not Another Teen Movie--38
3. Heist--23
4. View From the Top--15
5. State and Main--6
6. Girlfight--1

One of Shapiro's earliest gigs was scoring the underrated MTV sketch comedy show The State, and he went on to score their satire of 80s teen comedies Wet Hot American Summer, which received little theatrical release but has become a cult favorite on video. He has written two scores for David Mamet -- a forgettable effort for State and Main, and a snappy, Goldsmith-inspired score for Heist. Despite his strong work for Heist (sadly, unreleased on CD), he is still hired largely for comedies, and even the upcoming feature version of Starsky & Hutch is unlikely to change that -- after all, it stars Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller.

WHAT'S NEXT: Starsky & Hutch

AGE: Unavailable
REP: Gorfaine/Schwartz
FAN FAVORITE: Darkness Falls
TYPECAST IN: Horror
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The Hunted--34
2. Darkness Falls--32
3. Frailty--13

Tyler is unquestionably the fastest rising young composer in town, demonstrated by the fact that earlier this year he had three new score CD releases in three weeks (all from Varese Sarabande). Scoring independent films for the last few years, he had a breakthrough in 2002 with Bill Paxton's creepy directorial debut Frailty. He recently scored his first high-budget film, William Friedkin's unofficial reworking of First Blood, The Hunted, and later this year will have his most demanding and high-profile project to date -- following once more in the footsteps of Jerry Goldsmith by replacing that composer on the Richard Donner/Michael Crichton time-travel swashbuckler Timeline.

WHAT'S NEXT: Timeline, The Big Empty

AGE: Unavailable
REP: Unknown
RELATIONSHIPS: Lisa Cholodenko
TYPECAST IN: Arthouse comedy-drama
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Laurel Canyon--3
2. High Art--1
3. Roger Dodger--1

Like Nathan Larson, Wedren was a member of the group Shudder to Think, and has gone on to an impressive solo career of his own, in the last year scoring two high-profile indies: Laurel Canyon (with Frances McDormand and Christian Bale) and Roger Dodger, which boasted an acclaimed performance from Campbell Scott and an edge, offbeat score from Wedren. Next up is the Jack Black comedy The School of Rock, and though it might not prove to be a film composer's showcase, at least it should be funny.

WHAT'S NEXT: The School of Rock

AGE: 36
REP: Seth Kaplan Entertainment
RELATIONSHIPS: Ron Shelton
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind--15
2. Play it to the Bone--8
3. Thirteen Conversations About One Thing--3

Wurman made his big studio breakthrough a few years ago with Ron Shelton's boxing comedy Play it to the Bone, but the film received little notice and Wurman returned to the indie world. His delicate score for Thirteen Conversations About One Thing made effective use of a small ensemble, while his score for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was sparse in the extreme, as the film was dominated by found music (in one case, a cover version of John Barry's Quiller Memorandum theme). This summer, Wurman returns to the Shelton fold with his highest profile film yet, the Harrison Ford cop comedy/drama Hollywood Homicide.

WHAT'S NEXT: Hollywood Homicide

Very good work on the Top 40 composers -- especially interesting was it to compare it to the article in FSM magazine last, uhm, October about the Top 40s!

Only one nitpicking thing: Horner has scored three BP winners (Braveheart, Titanic and A Beautiful Mind).

And I still can't understand how Thomas Newman can finish ahead of Howard Shore -- both from the artistic and commercial point of view.

My putting Thomas Newman so high comes the sense that he's the top composer for "Oscar bait" movies -- after all, he scored three consecutive films (American Beauty, The Green Mile, Erin Brockovich) which were not only Best Picture nominees (and Beauty won) but also hundred million dollar grossers. Not too shabby.

And you're absolutely right about Horner scoring three Best Picture winners. That was just inexcusable sloppiness on my part.

FROM: Rick Neely

Great article on the top 40 composers. Very informative and neatly presented. The one thing that did catch my attention was the remark about Horner scoring his 2nd Best picture compared to Williams and Goldsmith with one apiece. A Beautiful Mind was actually Horner's 3rd best picture (Braveheart was his first, Titanic his second). Plus to make note of active composers who scored a best picture, Hans Zimmer has 3 and John Barry has a few under his belt as well. For interesting reference, take a look at the past 20 years best pictures and who scored them ('*' denotes the score oscared for best score for year)

1982 - Ghandi - Ravi Shankar, George Fenton
1983 - Terms of Endearment - Michael Gore
1984 - Amadeus - (Mozart adapt. by Sir Neville Mariner)
1985 - Out of Africa - John Barry *
1986 - Platoon - (Barber's Adagio For Strings arranged by Georges Delerue
1987 - The Last Emperor - Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, & Cong Su *
1988 - Rain Man - Hans Zimmer
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy - Hans Zimmer
1990 - Dances with Wolves - John Barry *
1991 - The Silence of the Lambs - Howard Shore
1992 - Unforgiven - Lennie Niehaus
1993 - Schindler's List - John Williams *
1994 - Forrest Gump - Alan Silvestri
1995 - Braveheart - James Horner
1996 - The English Patient - Gabriel Yared *
1997 - Titanic - James Horner *
1998 - Shakespeare in Love - Stephen Warbeck *
1999 - American Beauty - Thomas Newman
2000 - Gladiator- Hans Zimmer
2001 - A Beautiful Mind - James Horner
2002 - Chicago - Danny Elfman

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