FILM SCORE FRIDAY 7/25/03
By Scott Bettencourt
As if last week's announcement of four new CDs from Varese Sarabande
weren't enough, they have just announced releases of two of the year's
most highly awaited action adventure scores.
On August 12th they will release S.W.A.T., featuring Elliot
Goldenthal's first score since winning the Oscar for Frida.
S.W.A.T., alas, it not about a top-secret government project to
defeat a giant mutant housefly, but is instead based on the ABC cop show
from the mid-seventies, which was only on the air for a year and a half
but was made famous by a hit instrumental theme by Barry DeVorzon. Its
film incarnation stars Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell and Michelle Rodriguez,
and is directed by Clark Johnson, who was superb as Detective Meldrick
Lewis on Homicide: Life on the Street (a much better show than S.W.A.T.,
but odds are no one's going to make a big action movie version of it a
quarter century from now).
Two weeks later, they will release the CD of Alan Silvestri's
score for LARA CROFT, TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE, Jan De Bont's
sequel to the hit video game adaptation of two years ago. Silvestri's departure
from Pirates of the Caribbean allowed him to take over Cradle
of Life scoring duties from original composer Craig Armstrong, and
fans are eagerly anticipating a score in the Mummy Returns vein.
Silvestri's score was recorded in London, which if nothing else means the
CD should be more than 30 minutes long. For those less interested in score
CDs (and who are, inexplicably, reading this column), Hollywood Records
has released a song compilation for the film, including one Silvestri cue,
"Pandora's Box."
Hollywood Records will be releasing Michael Kamen's
score to the new Kevin Costner-directed Western, OPEN RANGE, on
August 12th. The film stars Costner, Robert Duvall and Annette Bening,
and is the first film Costner has directed since The Postman in
1997.
Composer Richard Band, director Stuart Gordon,
and composer-director John Harrison will be signing La-La Land CDs
at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, California (4213 W. Burbank Blvd., 91505)
on August 9th at 2:00 p.m. Harrison will be signing the just released CD
of his score to CREEPSHOW (which includes bonus cues from other
Harrison works), while Band and Gordon will sign CDs for their first two
collaborations, RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND.
The CDs must be purchased at Dark Delicacies to receive autographs.
However, those interested buyers who can't make it to the event can purchase
CDs over the phone to be signed and shipped to them. Their number is (818)
566-6660, and the website is at www.darkdel.com
Rumon Gamba will conduct the BBC Philharmonic in a concert
of British film music at the Royal Albert Hall 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, August
16th, to be broadcast live on BBC2 and BBC Radio 3.
The selections will include the following:
The Cruel Sea - Alan Rawsthorne (5 min.)
Oliver Twist - Arnold Bax (10 min.)
Warsaw Concerto - Richard Addinsell (8 min.)
The Belles of St. Trinians - Richard Addinsell (8 min.)
Richard III (Prelude) - William Walton (7 min.)
Murder on the Orient Express - Richard Rodney Bennett (11 min.)
The Lion in Winter/Dances With Wolves/James Bond themes - John Barry
(18 min.)
Things to Come - Arthur Bliss (20 min.)
For more information, go to www.bbc.co.uk/proms.
Maurice Jarre will be the guest of honor at the
World Soundtrack Awards ceremony at this year's Flanders Film Festival
in Ghent, winning a Lifetime Achievement Award, and previous World Soundtrack
Awards winner Patrick Doyle will perform live. For more information,
go to the Awards website at http://www.worldsoundtrackawards.com.
On August 7th and 8th at 7:30 p.m., film composer Mark
Governor (Pet Sematary 2) will be joined by vocalist Kathy Fisher
and other guest artists performing Governor's string quartet arrangements
of their original songs from films, as well as new string quartet versions
of songs by Elvis Costello, Radiohead, David Bowie and others, at the brand
new Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica, California. For more information,
go to http://www.edgemar.com.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
All This and Heaven Too/A Stolen Life - Max Steiner - Marco Polo
(import)
Creepshow (& bonus cues) - John Harrison - La-La Land
Pirates of the Caribbean - Klaus Badelt - Disney
Red River - Dimitri Tiomkin - Marco Polo (import)
Seabiscuit - Randy Newman - Decca/UMG
Spy Kids 3D: Game Over - Robert Rodriguez - Milan
IN THEATERS TODAY
Buffalo Soldiers - David Holmes
Camp - Stephen Trask - Song CD on Decca/UMG
Hotel - Mike Figgis, Anthony Marinelli
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Alan Silvestri
- Score CD due August 26 from Varese Sarabande
Lucia, Lucia - Nacho Mastretta
Masked and Anonymous - Bob Dylan - Song CD on Columbia
Mondays in the Sun - Lucio Godoy - Score CD on Milan
Seabiscuit - Randy Newman - Score CD on Decca/UMG
Spy Kids 3D: Game Over - Robert Rodriguez - Score CD on Milan
COMING SOON
July 29
Le Divorce - Richard Robbins - Grandstand
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Trevor Jones - Varese
Sarabande (mail order only)
Varese Sarabande 25th Anniversary Celebration vol. 2 - various
- Varese Sarabande (mail order only)
August 12
Open Range - Michael Kamen - Hollywood
S.W.A.T. - Elliot Goldenthal - Varese Sarabande
August 19
Freddy vs. Jason - Graeme Revell - Varese Sarabande
Gigli - John Powell - Varese Sarabande
Passionada - Harry Gregson-Williams - Varese Sarabande
August 26
Jeepers Creepers 2 - Bennett Salvay - Varese Sarabande
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Alan Silvestri
- Varese Sarabande
Date Unknown
The Abominable Dr. Phibes/The Shuttered Room -Basil Kirchin
- Perseverance
Amerika - Basil Poledouris - Prometheus
Battle Cry - Max Steiner - Screen Archives/BYU
The Hellstrom Chronicle - Lalo Schifrin - Aleph
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Denny Zeitlin - Perseverance
Mighty Joe Young, etc. - Roy Webb, et al - Monstrous Movie Music
Night and the City - Franz Waxman/Benjamin Frankel - Screen
Archives
A Summer Place - Max Steiner - Screen Archives/BYU
This Island Earth, etc. - Herman Stein, et al - Monstrous Movie
Music
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
July 25 - Don Ellis born (1934)
July 27 - Alex North begins recording score to The Outrage
(1964)
July 27 - Jerome Moross died (1983)
July 27 - Miklos Rozsa died (1995)
July 28 - Carmen Dragon born (1914)
July 28 - Brian May born (1934)
July 29 - Doug Timm died (1989)
July 30 - Antoine Duhamel born (1925)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS - Nathan Larson
"The director of My Beautiful Laundrette presents a scrubbed, anonymous
London, fluorescent-filtered and polished to the high chrome of a car commercial;
on the soundtrack, screeching feedback and analog gurgles impatiently nudge
the ear to what lies below the antiseptic veneer."
Jessica Winter, Village Voice
JOHNNY ENGLISH - Edward Shearmur
"Edward Shearmur's score incorporates several Bondish nods."
Derek Elley, Variety
FROM: "Greg Bryant"
SUBJECT: Emmy Awards Ceremony
I normally don't watch the Emmy Awards ceremony, but I think I
will this year just to hear how the presenters will handle reading the
Main Title Theme list:
"MAIN TITLE THEME MUSIC--
Penn & Teller: @#$%^*?!! - Gary Stockdale"
There are so many Emmy categories that, in all probability, the Main Title
Theme award will not be part of the televised ceremony. Alas.
FROM: "Jeremy Moniz"
Concerning the new poll ("Which movie that John Williams
dropped out of do you most wish he'd scored?"), I think you forgot one
option -- None of the above. With the exception of The Sentinel (1977 Gil
Melle) and Quintet (1979 Tom Pierson), as I have not heard those scores,
I like what the hired composers came up with. This does pose a new question
and an idea for a future column. Who is Tom Pierson and where is this one-shot
composer now?
Like I've said before, I'm not a John Williams basher, but I like
to root for the underdog composers. Right now, especially with "Timeline",
Goldsmith is receiving a serious boot much like Bernard Hermann did on
"Torn Curtain" (well, not exactly but fans sure felt the impact of the
dreaded word, REJECTED). Broughton and Poledouris are surprisingly underproductive
these days and too many films are being scored by virtual unknowns and
pop stars. Is this progress or what?
For me, the idea of the poll was not so much which of these eventual scores
do you wish did not exist, but which non-existent John Williams score would
you most want to hear. Which is why I voted for The Sentinel.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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