THE TOP FORTY COUNTDOWN 2004: PART TWO

By Scott Bettencourt

The list so far:

31. Edward Shearmur
32. Christopher Young
33. Trevor Rabin
34. Marc Shaiman
35. Theodore Shapiro
36. George Fenton
37. Harry Gregson-Williams
38. Trevor Jones
39. Brian Tyler
40. Stephen Warbeck

30. PATRICK DOYLE

2003 RANKING: 32
AGE: 50
REPRESENTATION: Gorfaine/Schwartz
2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
ONGOING FILMMAKER RELATIONSHIPS: Kenneth Branagh, Alfonso Cuaron, Regis Wargnier, Mike Newell
BACKGROUND: Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, actor, stage composer
FAN FAVORITES: Henry V, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
TYPECAST IN: Oscar bait
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Bridget Jones's Diary--71 (U.S. gross in millions)
2. Sense and Sensibility--43
3. Gosford Park--41
4. Secondhand Lions--41
5. Donnie Brasco--41
6. Dead Again--38
7. Carlito's Way--36
8. Calendar Girls--30
9. Great Expectations--26
10. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein--22

The U.S. grosses for Doyle's latest projects, Secondhand Lions and Calendar Girls (41 and 30 million, respectively) may be low by today's blockbuster standards, but they are still among the highest earning films this composer has scored. Calendar Girls (aka The Full Mirren) may not have been a great scoring opportunity, with songs frequently taking precedence over score, but as a leukemia survivor Doyle must have found the subject matter unusually close to his heart. Unlike Calendar Girls, Secondhand Lions gave Doyle a prime opportunity to work in a variety of styles ranging from old-fashioned adventure to the intimate and heartfelt. As with any film composer, Doyle's career fortunes are dependent on circumstances beyond his control -- another composer was hired for the Bridget Jones sequel (which has a different director than the Doyle-scored original), regular collaborator Kenneth Branagh's feature directing career has fallen on hard times, and another Doyle director, Alfonso Cuaron, was obligated to hire John Williams for the third Harry Potter film (the fact that Potter producer Chris Columbus had replaced Doyle on Stepmom probably didn't help). Still, having triumphed over serious illness, maintaining a Hollywood scoring career should be a snap.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Galindez Mystery

2003 RANKING: Not ranked
AGE: 67
REP: Kraft-Engel
2 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
RELATIONSHIPS: Godfrey Reggio, Errol Morris
BACKGROUND: Julliard School of Music (under Aaron Copland), concert composer, pioneering minimalist
FAN FAVORITE: Candyman
TYPECAST IN: Arthouse films
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The Hours--41
2. Secret Window--40 (as of 3/28/04)
3. Candyman--25
4. Taking Lives--21 (as of 3/28/04)
5. Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh--13
6. Hamburger Hill--13
7. Kundun--5
8. The Fog of War--3
9. A Brief History of Time--2
10. Koyaanisqatsi--1

With a Stephen King adaptation and an Angelina Jolie serial killer thriller released in consecutive weeks, Hollywood's top suspense composer of the season is, of all people, Philip Glass, a twist more shocking than anything in either film. His Oscar nominated score for The Hours increased his Hollywood visibility (though I suspect it'd be hard to find him on the party circuit or lunching at a studio commissary), while his distinctive style makes him especially suitable for the thriller genre (after all, some have argued that Bernard Herrmann was a minimalist before his time). His Secret Window score particularly manages to be fresh and effective and maintains the Glass style without sounding like self-parody. The only surprise is that Mr. Glass should have chosen to accept these assignments, with the risk that the classical music world may disavow all knowledge of him.

WHAT'S NEXT: Undertow

2003 RANKING: Not ranked
AGE: Unavailable
REP: Kraft-Engel
RELATIONSHIPS: Audrey Wells, Shawn Levy
BACKGROUND: USC film scoring program (under Jerry Goldsmith), TV composer
FAN FAVORITE: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
TYPECAST IN: Comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Cheaper by the Dozen--137
2. American Wedding--104
3. Bring It On--68
4. Just Married--56
5. The Tuxedo--50
6. Big Fat Liar--47
7. Under the Tuscan Sun--43
8. Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star--22
9. Stealing Harvard--13
10. Confidence--11

Beck had his biggest early success as the principal composer for TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but despite the skill he demonstrated with scoring action, romance and the macabre, his feature work has been largely in the comedy realm. His collaboration with director Shawn Levy hasn't inspired much memorable music, but the films (Big Fat Liar, Just Married, Cheaper by the Dozen) have made Beck commercially viable. Confidence allowed him to work in relatively darker territory, while Under the Tuscan Sun is his most satisfying feature score yet, a charming and graceful blend of minimalism and the currently trendy Thomas Newman style. If his work with Levy continues, Beck may soon be following in the footsteps of Hollywood's most popular light composer, Henry Mancini -- Levy next directs Steve Martin in a return of the Pink Panther series.

WHAT'S NEXT: Saved, A Cinderella Story, Little Black Book, Without a Paddle

2003 RANKING: 31
AGE: 45
REP: First Artists Management
RELATIONSHIPS: Baz Luhrmann, Philip Noyce
BACKGROUND: Royal Academy of Music, pop songwriter/arranger
FAN FAVORITE: Moulin Rouge
TYPECAST IN: Action/thrillers
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The Bone Collector--66
2. Love Actually--59
3. Moulin Rouge--57
4. William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet--46
5. Kiss of the Dragon--36
6. The Quiet American--12
7. The Magdalene Sisters--4

Armstrong's departure from the Tomb Raider sequel seemed at first like a career setback but the film turned out to be merely one of Paramount's nearly unbroken chain of big budget money losers (grossing a disappointing 65 million). Last year he scored his finest film yet, the fact-based drama The Magdalene Sisters, but though his score was effective in context it sounded distractingly similar to earlier Armstrong scores like The Bone Collector and The Quiet American. Love Actually was not as big a hit as expected and Armstrong's score at times tended toward the syrupy side, but it demonstrated greater warmth and orchestral variety than the composer had shown before, and bodes well for future assignments.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Clearing
 

2003 RANKING: 19
AGE: 47
REP: Kraft-Engel
RELATIONSHIPS: The Wachowski Brothers, Joel Silver
BACKGROUND: UCLA, TV composer, orchestrator (for Horner, Kamen, R. Newman and others), concert composer
FAN FAVORITE: The Matrix
TYPECAST IN: Action
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The Matrix Reloaded--281
2. Jurassic Park III--181
3. The Matrix--171
4. The Matrix Revolutions--139
5. Behind Enemy Lines--58
6. House on Haunted Hill--40
7. Valentine--20
8. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever--14
9. Antitrust--11
10. Universal Soldier: The Return--10

Davis managed to satisfyingly expand upon his original Matrix score in last year's two back-to-back sequels (though some of his more inventive work for Reloaded wasn't featured in the final film), but while Reloaded boasted the highest grosses of the trilogy, fan reaction was mixed and critical reaction was worse, and the third film, despite its stunning effects, disappointed nearly everyone and earned the lowest grosses of the series. Between the trilogy and Jurassic Park III, Davis has scored more top grossers than many composers in the top forty, but to keep from staying typecast as an action composer he should be extra careful in choosing his next project.

2003 RANKING: 14
AGE: 45
REP: Gorfaine/Schwartz
RELATIONSHIPS: Atom Egoyan, Ang Lee, Mira Nair
BACKGROUND: University of Toronto, Canadian cinema
FAN FAVORITE: Ride With the Devil
TYPECAST IN: Drama
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. 8mm--36
2. Bounce--36
3. Girl, Interrupted--28
4. Hearts in Atlantis--24
5. Antwone Fisher--21
6. Monsoon Wedding--13
7. The Ice Storm--7
8. Kama Sutra--4
9. Exotica--4
10. The Sweet Hereafter--3

Danna seemed poised to break into the blockbuster league with his assignment to score Ang Lee's Hulk, but he was replaced at the last minute by superhero specialist Danny Elfman, who actually incorporated (and credited) one of Danna's motifs into his score. Danna's only major feature last year was the engrossing journalistic drama Shattered Glass, for which he wrote a fresh and restrained score, but the film never found its deserved audience despite its award winning performance by Peter Sarsgaard. Next up is his third film for Monsoon Wedding director Mira Nair, a remake of Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp.

WHAT'S NEXT: Vanity Fair

2003 RANKING: 37
AGE: Unavailable
REP: Gorfaine/Schwartz
BACKGROUND: German cinema, Media Ventures
FAN FAVORITE: The Time Machine
TYPECAST IN: Action
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean--305
2. The Time Machine--55
3. The Recruit--52
4. K19: The Widowmaker--35
5. Basic--26
6. Equilibrium--1

On the one hand, Badelt's contribution ("Overproduced by Hans Zimmer") to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was one of the year's most disliked scores, at least among film music aficionados. On the other, and ultimately more important, hand, filmmakers and studios don't care what film music fans think, and Pirates was one of the year's biggest boxoffice hits -- to a producer's ear, a great score is a score for a hit film. One would like to think that with a producer other than Jerry Bruckheimer (proponent of "the Jerry Bruckheimer sound," which I suspect is what the damned in Hell must listen to for all eternity), Badelt would have had the freedom to compose a varied orchestral score reflecting the film's surprisingly successful blend of romance, comedy, adventure and the supernatural. Badelt's score for Ned Kelly has earned both good and bad reviews from mainstream critics, but despite its trendy cast (Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Geoffrey Rush) the film is getting only a minimal U.S. release. Next up for the composer is a tennis romance, Wimbledon, which should be a nice change of pace for Badelt and can only be better than the last entry in that micro-genre, 1979's Players (though it's doubtful that Badelt will come up with anything as rousing as Goldsmith's Wimbledon theme from Players).

WHAT'S NEXT: Wimbledon

2003 RANKING: 30
AGE: 35
REP: Greenspan Artist Management
RELATIONSHIPS: Wes Craven, Bob Weinstein, Guillermo Del Toro
BACKGROUND: Yale School of Music, USC (under Jerry Goldsmith)
FAN FAVORITE: Mimic
TYPECAST IN: Horror
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines--150
2. Scream--103
3. Scream 2--101
4. Scream 3--89
5. Blade 2--81
6. The Faculty--40
7. Resident Evil--39
8. Dracula 2000--33
9. The Watcher--28
10. Mimic--25

Terminator 3 proved to be this composer's biggest hit, and though his contribution lacked any themes as memorable as Brad Fiedel's for the original Terminator, Beltrami's score was a fresh entry in the sci-fi action genre. But despite scoring intimate dramas for television and European cinema, he's still typecast as a horror composer in the U.S., as with his upcoming projects with his most frequent collaborators -- Wes Craven and Guillermo Del Toro.

WHAT'S NEXT: Hellboy, Cursed

2003 RANKING: 29
AGE: 54
REP: First Artists Management
1 OSCAR, 3 NOMINATIONS
RELATIONSHIPS: Anthony Minghella, Jean-Jacques Beneix, Jean-Jacques Annaud
BACKGROUND: Pop songwriter, European cinema
FAN FAVORITE: The Talented Mr. Ripley
TYPECAST IN: Tragic romance
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Cold Mountain--95 (as of 3/28/04)
2. The Talented Mr. Ripley--81
3. The English Patient--78
4. City of Angels--78
5. Message in a Bottle--52
6. Autumn in New York--37
7. Wings of Courage--15
8. Possession--10
9. Clean and Sober--8
10. The Lover--4

Mere weeks ago, Yared seemed to be at the peak of his Hollywood career -- he was enjoying his biggest boxoffice hit yet, Cold Mountain, for which he earned his third Best Score nomination (not bad for a composer who is far from a Hollywood insider), and was busy fulfilling a lifelong dream of scoring an old fashioned epic spectacle with his work on Wolfgang Petersen's megabudget Troy. But despite writing music that an FSM correspondent (who attended Yared recording sessions) described as "a beautifully-structured, multi-layered classical work," Yared's score was thrown out and James Horner was brought in (Horner's name has already replaced Yared's on the film's latest trailer). Just arriving in U.S. theaters is Bon Voyage, France's 2003 submission for Best Foreign Language Film, and while the movie is lavish but unsatisfying, Yared's light, energetic score is the kind of work that he hasn't been allowed to write in the U.S. -- both Cold Mountain and Sylvia fall into the narrow Yared genre of tragic romance.

2003 RANKING: 16
AGE: 52
REP: First Artists Management
1 OSCAR NOMINATION
RELATIONSHIPS: Jodie Foster, Gary Fleder, Irwin Winkler, Brian Robbins
BACKGROUND: Jazz & classical trumpeter (for San Francisco Opera Orchestra, bands), Windham Hill recording artist
FAN FAVORITE: Fly Away Home
TYPECAST IN: Drama
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Save the Last Dance--91
2. Blade--70
3. Miracle--63 (as of 3/28/04)
4. Rules of Engagement--61
5. Kiss the Girls--60
6. Don't Say a Word--54
7. Varsity Blues--52
8. The Net--50
9. Men of Honor--48
10. Timecop--44

Isham may never write the epic symphonic score that would make him a favorite of the traditional film music fan (Waterworld was his best chance, until he was replaced by James Newton Howard), but he's one of the most steadily employed composers in Hollywood and has an impressive number of colors in his palette, including jazz (The Cooler, his Alan Rudolph scores), folk (Nell, A River Runs Through It), orchestral sentiment (Life as a House, At First Sight) and synth-based suspense (David Mamet's stunning 70s-style paranoid thriller Spartan, Philip Kaufman's dreadful USA Channel-style mystery Twisted). His atypically rousing score for the modest hit Miracle may lead to his receiving more high profile Hollywood assignments.

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