NOT EVEN NOMINATED, PART TWENTY

By Scott Bettencourt

ORIGINAL SCORE

AMERICAN BEAUTY - Thomas Newman
ANGELA'S ASHES - John Williams
THE CIDER HOUSE RULES - Rachel Portman
THE RED VIOLIN - John Corigliano (the winner)
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY - Gabriel Yared

THE GREEN MILE - Thomas Newman

Screenwriter Frank Darabont made his feature directorial debut with his 1994 film of Stephen King's prison-set novella Rita Haworth and Shawshank Redemption (released as The Shawshank Redemption), and though the film did only moderate boxoffice, it earned 7 Oscar nominations and in the 11 years since has become one of the most beloved films of its decade. It almost seemed like a joke when Darabont announced he would follow Shawshank with yet another Stephen King prison story, the author's six-part serial novel The Green Mile. As with Shawshank, the writer-director was extremely faithful to the source material, and though the 188-minute running time seemed excessive, Darabont's exceptional storytelling skills and the superb cast (Tom Hanks, David Morse, Doug Hutchison, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jeter, Graham Greene, Bonnie Hunt, William Sadler, James Cromwell, Patricia Clarkson, Gary Sinise, Barry Pepper, Jeffrey DeMunn, and an Oscar-nominated Michael Clarke Duncan) helped make this a thoroughly engrossing entertainment, and it earned the impressive boxoffice that eluded Shawshank. Shawshank had proved to be a breakthrough score for composer Newman, and unsurprisingly Darabont hired the composer again, Newman's restrained yet emotional music helping counteract the inherent sentimentality of King's fantasy-tinged story, though his music for "Jingles" the mouse skirts the edge of cutesiness. The lengthy soundtrack CD featured the bulk of Newman's score interspersed with some period source cues, while the For Your Consideration CD featured the same Newman pieces minus the source music. (The Green Mile received 4 Oscar nominations)

THE MUMMY - Jerry Goldsmith

This revisionist take on the classic '30s horror film had spent many years in development (Clive Barker was reportedly involved at one point) before it reached the screen as a film from writer-director Stephen Sommers. Sommers had first tried to hire Goldsmith on his 1994 remake of The Jungle Book, only to lose the composer to a scheduling conflict (resulting in a first-rate Basil Poledouris score). Sommers and Goldsmith managed to work together on 1998's Deep Rising, a delightful guilty pleasure which made barely a ripple at the boxoffice, and Goldsmith's score was one of his less inspired works. The Mummy, however, proved not only to be a huge boxoffice success but inspired one of Goldsmith's most exciting later scores, with exotic atmosphere, vivid action cues (including one pieces that sounded like an homage to all the great scores for Ray Harryhausen films) and more energy than his music had shown in years. Despite his delightful music, Goldsmith was apparently unhappy with his experience on the film and turned down the even higher grossing sequel, which was ultimately scored by Alan Silvestri. (1 Oscar nomination)

THE PHANTOM MENACE - John Williams

With sixteen years passing since the previous Star Wars film, 1983's Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace was both the most eagerly awaited film of the year and the most breathlessly anticipated score. Visual effects technology had advanced dramatically in those 16 years, with the motion control era replaced by the digital age, but unfortunately George Lucas' sense of drama and storytelling had moved in the opposite direction, as despite Phantom Menace's technical wizardry, it was a hugely unsatisfying movie, visually stunning but narratively awkward and at times downright dull -- the final duel with Darth Maul may have been exciting, but there was a lot of Jar-Jar Binks to wade through to get there. Sixteen years is a long time in the career of a composer, and though by the late '90s, Williams was less reliant on the instantly memorable melodies which had made him famous, his technical skill had not diminished a bit, and it was his music more than any of Lucas' contribution that made Phantom Menace feel like a continuation of the Star Wars universe. He contributed two major new themes, the exciting "Duel of the Fates" (reminiscent of his Nixon score) and an elaborate theme for the young Annakin, which contains clever portents of his classic Darth Vader theme. The original soundtrack release featured only one CD's worth of score, disappointing fans who had been spoiled by the wonderful, expanded multi-disc re-releases of the original trilogy's scores, and over a year later it was followed by a "complete" two-disc set which, bizarrely, featured the score as heard in the film, music edits and all, rather than Williams' complete original recording. The two followup scores, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (both of which suffered from severe Lucas music editing and tracking) have only received one-disc releases -- it is hoped that all three scores will receive complete Special Edition releases, and that it won't take two decades for them to reach scores. (3 Oscar nominations)

THE SIXTH SENSE - James Newton Howard

M. Night Shyamalan's summer megahit, despite having been a lucrative spec script sale for the writer-director, came virtually out of left field -- his only previous films were a drama, Praying With Anger (which the filmmaker also starred in, and which was notable mostly for being shown regularly on cable in a letterboxed format), and the coming-of-age story Wide Awake, which received a brief and belated release after much wrangling with its distributor, Miramax. Shyamalan's breakthrough film is still his most satisfying entertainment, a stylish and engrossing ghost story on its own, whose genuinely clever final twist adds an entirely fresh layer of meaning to the story (rather than just muddling it, Usual Suspects-style), and dominated by a truly superb performance by Haley Joel Osment which has become the gold standard of contemporary child acting. Edmund Choi had scored Shyamalan's little seen earlier films, but James Newton Howard was hired for Sixth Sense (probably at the suggestion of producer Frank Marshall), and though his score was not nearly as memorable as his three follow-up scores for the director -- Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village -- it was a thoughtful and effective orchestral work which had a great impact on many of the countless horror scores which have followed. (6 Oscar nominations)

TITUS - Elliot Goldenthal

With such acclaimed theatrical pieces as the Broadway staging of The Lion King behind her, it was only natural that director Julie Taymor should move into feature directing, and even more unsurprising that her longtime companion, composer Elliot Goldenthal, should be with her. This adaptation of Titus Andronicus, one of Shakespeare's most infamously violent plays, was a visually stunning and dramatically effective work, its arresting style and strong acting (Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange played the antagonists) helped counteract the stiltedness that afflicts most Shakespeare films, and Goldenthal's striking music added much to the impact. Though some of his bacchanale music sounded distractingly like cues from his Batman scores, overall his mixture of epic style and more modern sounds was daring and effective, one of the boldest works in his impressive canon. (1 Oscar nomination)

ELECTION - Rolfe Kent

If most people were asked what the finest American film of the last 15 years was, their knee jerk answer would be probably be Schindler's List (a three-hour black-and-white Spielberg docudrama about the Holocaust -- how can it not be a masterpiece?), but my vote would got to Election, Alexander Payne's witty, stylish and scathing satirical high school comedy, featuring career best performances from Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick, and reinforced by a deft and original Rolfe Kent score which cleverly uses snatches of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Western oeuvre (especially the shrieking voices from Navajo Joe). The soundtrack CD unfortunately only featured a suite from Kent's score, which, as one of the few truly great comedy scores of the post John Morris era, deserves to be released in its entirety.

THE MATRIX - Don Davis

1999 was a rare and exceptional year for American movies, with a string of outstanding films unprecedented for the decade, including Election, American Beauty, The Sixth Sense, Being John Malkovich, The Iron Giant, Three Kings, and The Matrix, a Joel Silver production which managed to be both the finest action film of the decade and one of the smartest science-fiction films as well. Composer Don Davis had previously scored Bound for Matrix's writing-directing team Andy & Larry Wachowski, and his modernist orchestral score was the perfect accompaniment, bringing new life to action scoring and making a distinctive mark amongst the film's techno songs. The song CD was followed by a score CD on Varese, and each of Davis' two sequel scores received a release as well, though sadly the composer has yet to find a project as challenging or rewarding since.

RIDE WITH THE DEVIL - Mychael Danna

Ang Lee's third major studio film, following Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm, was an unusually literate Civil War adventure-drama which went virtually unseen despite a cast of rising stars including Tobey Maguire, Simon Baker, Jeffrey Wright and singer Jewel. (Interestingly, like nearly every major Civil War film except Glory, the Confederates are the protagonists). With the help of orchestrator/conductor Nicholas Dodd, Danna wrote an energetic and rousing score, more traditional than his usual approach (his original attempt was vetoed by the filmmakers), and it's one of the most accessible and enjoyable works in the composer's oeuvre. With luck, the film and its score will someday find the audience it deserves.

SLEEPY HOLLOW - Danny Elfman

Fitting between the amusing but uneven Mars Attacks! and the uninspired Planet of the Apes remake in director Tim Burton's career, this revisionist look at the Washington Irving classic was one of Burton's most enjoyable films, a gorgeously photographed and designed homage to Hammer horror films (even featuring Christopher Lee and Michael Gough in small roles), with Johnny Depp giving one of his most appealing performances as the bookish investigator Ichabod Crane. Elfman's score was atmospheric and thrilling, with a marvelously moody main theme, and the lengthy soundtrack album featured a generous amount of his score.

THE 13TH WARRIOR - Jerry Goldsmith

Michael Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead, a reworking of the classic story Beowulf, was set to reach the screen under its original title a year earlier, with John McTiernan directing Antonio Banderas as an Arab who joins a group of Viking warriors in a battle against an unseen enemy. The original teaser trailer was an exceptionally offputting combination of murky graphics and shrill sounds, and the film was ultimately retitled and recut by Crichton himself, who threw out Graeme Revell's original score (actually one of the composer's strongest works) and replaced it with one by Crichton's favorite composer Jerry Goldsmith, who gave the film a thrilling orchestral score which serves as a first-rate companion piece to The Mummy (especially since their Middle Eastern material is rather similar sounding). Despite the film's tortured path to the screen, it's one of McTiernan's few effective post-Red October films, and Varese's lengthy score CD does Goldsmith's terrific effort justice (though due to re-use fees, some rescored passages were left off).

Craig Armstrong wrote a deliberately anachronistic score for the English period adventure PLUNKETT & MACLAINE, and the score has its fans but both it and the movie were more overbearing than entertaining. His score for THE BONE COLLECTOR was effective enough but rather repetitively brooding, featuring a style which would crop up in such later Armstrong scores as The Magdalene Sisters and The Quiet American. He also utilized his distinctive sound for the little seen noir BEST LAID PLANS, starring Reese Witherspoon.

David Arnold provided his strongest James Bond score yet for the underrated THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, which benefited from being the only one of his Bonds to feature his own main title song.

Luis Bacalov scored one of his few Hollywood projects, writing a Euro-flavored score for the romantic comedy THE LOVE LETTER.

Angelo Badalamenti wrote a more traditional than usual score for David Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY, with one of his most memorable melodies. His music for Jane Campion's dreadful sex comedy HOLY SMOKE was much more palatable than the film, while his somber score for Mark Pellington's paranoid thriller ARLINGTON ROAD was supplemented with cues by the director's usual composers, the tomandandy team.

Christophe Beck's score for the indie romance GUINEVERE featured an evocative main theme which bore echoes of Danny Elfman's Good Will Hunting.

Marco Beltrami got to take a rare break from B-movie horror with the offbeat serial killer story THE MINUS MAN, providing an unusual score with an exciting finale.

Elmer Bernstein's last feature project for Martin Scorsese before his rejected Gangs of New York was BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, for which he provided a sparsely spotted but moody score, supplemented by tracked in cues from his score for The Good Son. He returned to the Western genre with the lavishly mounted but misconceived feature version of WILD WILD WEST, and his score showed his usual energy but his main theme suffered in comparison with Richard Markowitz's classic theme for the TV series, which was used all too briefly in the film. His score for THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN was warm and gentle but felt a little old-fashioned in the contemporary setting.

Terence Blanchard wrote an enjoyably brooding score in the Howard Shore vein for Spike Lee's frustrating SUMMER OF SAM, though the soundtrack CD featured none of his score.

Chris Boardman's score for the underrated Point Blank remake PAYBACK bore the unmistakable imprint of a temp-tracked Taking of Pelham One Two Three, yet the 70s sound was an apt accompaniment for this deliberately retro thriller.

Simon Boswell wrote a fittingly brooding score for the Tim Roth-directed incest drama THE WAR ZONE, and mixed classical and original music for the lavish, all-star WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

Songwriter Jon Brion wrote a brooding orchestral score for the acclaimed MAGNOLIA, though too often his music was slathered over the film to link disparate elements and became overbearing at times.

At the urging of director Simon West, Carter Burwell was able to avoid the usual military score cliches (snare drums, trumpet) for THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER, which is still the only one of the composer's projects to pass the $100 million mark at the boxoffice, though the most memorable music in the film came from some Southern found music used by the director. He provided a nice main theme for the bland hockey comedy-drama MYSTERY, ALASKA but used it a bit too often in his score. He didn't break much creative ground with his score for the acclaimed BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, but his distinctive style was a perfect fit for Charlie Kaufman's screenplay and Spike Jonze's direction. Much of his score for David O. Russell's acclaimed THREE KINGS was replaced with tracked in cues from Graeme Revell's The Seige and Thomas Newman's Flesh & Bone, and the soundtrack was available only as an Internet order from CDNow. He also made a rare foray into the urban action thriller with his percussive score for THE CORRUPTOR.

George Clinton's score for AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME was every bit as deft as his music for its predecessor, this time working in homages to John Barry's You Only Live Twice. His score for THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE was unable to provide any suspense or excitement for this disastrous thriller.

The makers of the religious horror film STIGMATA used portions of two different scores written for the film -- an orchestral effort by Ronin's Elia Cmiral, and a more rock-ish contribution by Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan. Corgan's score received a regular release, while Cmiral's was made available as a composer promo.

Bill Conti wrote a fresh and lively score for the surprisingly good remake of THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, though his score had to share screen time with a lot of found music.

Stewart Copeland scored two films on the far ends of the ambition spectrum -- the all-star Sam Shepard adaptation SIMPATICO, and the hit teen romance SHE'S ALL THAT.

Tony Cora's score for the sleeper hit THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT consisted entirely of a creepy, ambient end title, but this was all the music that the surprisingly effective film needed.

Mychael Danna's brooding score for the poorly reviewed 8MM was suitably dark and effective, though his use of Moroccan-style music to depict the sleazy urban underworld had a presumably unintentional racist implication. He wrote an admirably restrained and effective score for the Oscar-winning film of GIRL, INTERRUPTED, and a strikingly varied score for Atom Egoyan's FELICIA'S JOURNEY, mixing military drums and Mantovani-ish muzak.

Mason Daring wrote a surprisingly obvious and sappy score for Wes Craven's change-of-pace inspiration drama MUSIC OF THE HEART, shared time with period songs for the romantic drama A WALK ON THE MOON, and wrote a more typically discreet score for John Sayles' LIMBO.

Mike Leigh's amazing film on Gilbert & Sullivan's creation of The Mikado, TOPSY-TURVY, featured the songwriters' work adapted by Carl Davis.

During his brief run as producer Joel Silver's in-house composer, Don Davis wrote a clever and varied score for the remake of HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. His synth score for UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: THE RETURN was, not surprisingly, less inspired.

John Debney provided the overrated Watergate spoof DICK with a clever pastiche score, incorporating elements of John Barry and even Burt Bacharach's infamous dabba-dabba music from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He wrote energetic scores for two needless and dispiriting effects-laden projects, MY FAVORITE MARTIAN and INSPECTOR GADGET, gave LOST AND FOUND a Rachel Portman-ish score, and also scored the Sesame Street tie-in THE ADVENTURES OF ELMO IN GROUCHLAND. He wrote a large-scale orchestral horror score for END OF DAYS, with choral solos reminiscent of James Newton Howard's Devil's Advocate.

Steve Dorff made a rare return to features with two scores for director Hugh Wilson, both Brendan Fraser vechicles -- BLAST FROM THE PAST and DUDLEY DO-RIGHT.

The techno duo Dust Brothers (aka John King & Mike Simpson) wrote a fittingly cutting edge score for FIGHT CLUB.

Randy Edelman wrote a brief score for his only Ron Howard film, the director's largely forgotten ED TV.

Danny Elfman wrote one of his briefest scores for the skilled adaptation of ANYWHERE BUT HERE, working in a discreet Good Will Hunting vein. He brought his distinctive voice to the unsatisfying psychological drama INSTINCT, but his music for the finale was one of the rare times he seemed to be overinflating the drama, presumably at the director's insistence.

George Fenton followed in the footsteps of Bernard Herrmann, Richard Rodgers and Jerry Goldsmith when he provided the score for the lush, dull remake of ANNA AND THE KING, and his music was suitably glossy but ultimately forgettable.

Director-composer Mike Figgis provided the scores for two of his least impressive films, the atmospheric but pretentious THE LOSS OF SEXUAL INNOCENCE, and the dreary MISS JULIE.

John Frizzell wrote quirky scores for the cult classic OFFICE SPACE and Kevin Williamson's directorial debut, TEACHING MRS. TINGLE.

Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke provided an unusual, Middle East-tinged score for the Oscar-nominated THE INSIDER, which featured a few additional cues by Graeme Revell.

Elliot Goldenthal scored his fourth project for Neil Jordan, giving IN DREAMS a typically bold score with a strong use of electric guitars.

His popular score for the Spielberg production Poltergeist was probably the reason Jerry Goldsmith was hired for DreamWorks' lavish but often laughable remake of THE HAUNTING (instead of director Jan DeBont's usual composer, Mark Mancina), and his score featured some enjoyable echoes of Poltergeist as well as his usual expert craft, but was ultimately an unmemorable effort.

Dave Grusin worked in his typical jazz style for his last feature score to date, Sydney Pollack's romantic drama RANDOM HEARTS.

The acclaimed animated fantasy PRINCESS MONONOKE was the first major opportunity to hear composer Joe Hisaishi's dramatic, melodic music in American theaters.

James Horner's BICENTENNIAL MAN began with a main title distractingly similar to his Sneakers score (and returned with slight variations for his Oscar-nominated A Beautiful Mind), and closed with a Celine Dion song which failed to be the second coming of Titanic.

Richard Horowitz scored the arthouse drama THREE SEASONS, and was one of several contributors to the music for Oliver Stone's football epic ANY GIVEN SUNDAY.

James Newton Howard followed the blockbuster The Sixth Sense with the similar but inferior A STIR OF ECHOES. He wrote an appealingly varied score for Lawrence Kasdan's misfire MUMFORD, his fourth score for the director. He continued as the composer-of-choice for Julia Roberts' romantic comedies with RUNAWAY BRIDE, though none of his score ended up on the soundtrack album. He emphasized Asian sounds and an abstract, evocative approach to the gorgeously photographed adaptation of SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS, and his moving love theme was actually heard to better advantage in the trailer than in the movie or on the CD.

Alberto Iglesias worked in a lush, orchestral style for Pedro Almodovar's acclaimed melodrama ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, the third of five (so far) collaborations between the composer and director, and also scored the Spanish romantic drama LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.

Mark Isham worked in a modern, synth-flavored vein for the drama BODY SHOTS, whose advertising foolishly claimed it would be the defining film of its decade, and he had one of his biggest hits with the teen sports drama VARSITY BLUES, though none of his score was featured on the soundtrack CD. He wrote a gentle, romantic score for the drama AT FIRST SIGHT, and one of his effective folk-based scores for the overrated OCTOBER SKY. He scored his eighth film for director Alan Rudolph, the uneven adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's BREAKFAST AT CHAMPIONS, but the soundtrack CD featured only songs.

Alaric Jans wrote a classically tinged period score for David Mamet's surprisingly effective remake of THE WINSLOW BOY, which is the only one of the composer's scores to receive a CD release.

Trevor Jones wrote a gentle, guitar dominated score for his highest-grossing film to date, the pleasant romantic comedy NOTTING HILL. He also scored the long-delayed drama MOLLY, which was essentially Charly with a gender change.

Jan A.P. Kaczmarek wrote one of his most enjoyable scores for the underrated religious drama THE THIRD MIRACLE, and even its "world music" cues were fresh and uncliched.

Michael Kamen's large-scale orchestral score for Brad Bird's deservedly acclaimed THE IRON GIANT was one of the most enjoyable of the composer's later works, though his music was not as melodically memorable as the film deserved.

Kevin Kiner wrote a familiar interstellar adventure score for WING COMMANDER, featuring themes by David Arnold.

One of the few crossover film music successes of 1999 was RUN LOLA, RUN, whose techno-and-vocal score by Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil and director Tom Tykwer was one of the catchiest soundtracks of the year.

Harald Kloser scored his first major studio project, writing a somber if familiar orchestral score for the Roland Emmerich production THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR.

Mark Mancina's percussive score for the animated TARZAN had to share screen time with Phil Collins' original songs, including the Oscar-winning "You'll Be in My Heart."

Cliff Martinez' moody score for Steven Soderbergh's THE LIMEY featured off-tuned piano sounds pleasantly evocative of Henry Mancini's The Night Visitor and Danny Elfman's A Simple Plan.

Joel McNeely wrote an elaborate choral-and-orchestral score for the derivative sci-fi horror film VIRUS.

Noted guitarist Pat Metheny provided an effective orchestral score for the arthouse drama A MAP OF THE WORLD.

Andrea Morricone gave Barry Levinson's autobiographical LIBERTY HEIGHTS a melodic and nostalgic score extremely reminiscent of the work of his father Ennio.

Giuseppe Tornatore's THE LEGEND OF 1900 (known in Europe as The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean) featured a musician as a protagonist and thus provided an excellent opportunity for a composer; Ennio Morricone's romantic, melodic score made fine use of that opportunity, though disappointingly the U.S. release of the soundtrack omitted several cues from the European CD.

David Newman wrote a lively and highly enjoyable score for the clever Star Trek homage GALAXY QUEST, though more overt parodies of the classic Trek music would have been welcome. He scored two other comedies, providing a funky sound for BOWFINGER and making way for songs in NEVER BEEN KISSED, and emphasized a modern sound and the Asian setting in a change of pace score for the prison drama BROKEDOWN PALACE.

Randy Newman's score for TOY STORY 2 was marked by much of the slick but exhausting cartoonish busyness of his original score, but benefits from a superb original song, "When She Loved Me" which may be the finest song Newman has written for the screen (though of course he lost the Oscar to Phil Collins and Tarzan).

As usual, Lennie Niehaus utilized a theme by director-composer Clint Eastwood for his score to Eastwood's TRUE CRIME.

Michael Nyman collaborated with English rocker Damon Albarn on the offbeat score for the equally offbeat dark-comic cannibal horror Western RAVENOUS, and their deliberately disconcerting score featured strong echoes of Ennio Morricone. He provided a much more accessible and melodic score for Neil Jordan's atmospheric remake of Graham Greene's THE END OF THE AFFAIR, earning a Golden Globe nomination.

John Ottman wrote a fresh and lively score for LAKE PLACID, the worst of the year's two underwater monster movies. He replaced John Barry on Roland Joffe's failed comic noir GOODBYE, LOVER, writing a clever score which interpolated Rodgers & Hammerstein classics.

Canadian actor-writer-director Don McKellar's offbeat end-of-the-world romance LAST NIGHT featured a striking score by Alex Pauk and Alexina Louie which pleasantly evoked Jerry Goldsmith and Leonard Rosenman's groundbreaking work from the late 60s/early 70s.

Basil Poledouris wrote a charming comedy score for the mob spoof MICKEY BLUE EYES. He was a surprising and inspired choice to score Sam Raimi's baseball romance FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, and his score was suitably melodic and satisfying but the uneven yet highly enjoyable film was quickly forgotten.

Jocelyn Pook made an impressive feature scoring debut with Stanley Kubrick's disappointing final film, EYES WIDE SHUT, her elegantly disturbing music proving far more effective than the over used Ligeti which the director stuffed the film with.

Rachel Portman wrote a typically charming score for Garry Marshall's comedy drama THE OTHER SISTER, which failed to receive a score CD release.

John Powell scored the romantic comedy FORCES OF NATURE, the Africa-set documentary ENDURANCE, and collaborated with Hans Zimmer (and a lot of the usual Media Ventures suspects) on the flop action comedy CHILL FACTOR.

Zbigniew Preisner wrote a typically striking and moving score for the Samantha Morton-Rupert Graves starrer DREAMING OF JOSEPH LEES, which still has yet to see a soundtrack release.

Trevor Rabin's synth-and-orchestra score for DEEP BLUE SEA was suitably effective and disposable, but less memorable than that great guilty pleasure film.

Having written the song which gave the film its title, the acclaimed band REM was hired to score the Andy Kaufman biopic MAN IN THE MOON, and also provided a wonderful original song, "The Great Beyond."

Graeme Revell scored a rare comedy, the gender farce THREE TO TANGO, for which he provided an expectedly tango-laden score. He also scored a more typical project, the unintentionally funny BATS, and the misguided horror comedy IDLE HANDS.

Caleb Sampson wrote the quirky, distinctive score for Errol Morris' documentary MR. DEATH, THE RISE AND FALL OF FRED LEUCHTER JR. shortly before taking his own life.

Philippe Sarde wrote a somber, classical score for the French Resistance biopic LUCIE AUBRAC.

Eric Serra wrote his most ambitious score for Luc Besson's bold if unsuccessful THE MESSENGER: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC, working in a more classical style than his usual Euro-pop approach.

The sentimentalized remake of the 70s black comedy THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS featured an all-too appropriately sentimental score by Marc Shaiman, but the composer also wrote perhaps his most memorable work for the big screen, the score and songs for the taboo-breaking favorite SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT. He collaborated with Eric Clapton on the music for Rob Reiner's deadly THE STORY OF US.

Edward Shearmur was hired for the teen Dangerous Liaisons update CRUEL INTENTIONS when John Ottman's score (later released on CD by Varese) was rejected, but the composer never found the right tone for the film and it was one of his few creative misfires. He did a far better job with the unfairly maligned Robin Williams vehicle JAKOB THE LIAR, writing in a klezmer-tinged style and finding a better balance between comedy and tragedy than the filmmakers managed. He also showed his chameleonic ability by writing a pop-ish action score for the Martin Lawrence vehicle BLUE STREAK, a foreshadowing of his work on the Charlie's Angels movies, and scored the British comedy Martha, Meet Daniel, Frank and Lawrence, which received a belated U.S. release as THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU.

Howard Shore wrote a pleasingly brooding and amorphous score for one of director David Cronenberg's least satisfying films, the virtual reality thriller eXistenZ, while providing atypically forgettable music for the hit comedy ANALYZE THIS and Sidney Lumet's disastrous remake of John Cassavetes' GLORIA. He was a surprising choice to score Kevin Smith's controversial religious comedy DOGMA, and his attempts to find a proper mock-heroic tone for the score were not always successful, with his cue for Alan Rickman's entrance proving one of the few distracting pieces in Shore's oeuvre.

Alan Silvestri's score for the smash hit film of STUART LITTLE was a bit overbearing, lacking his usual deft touch; he did much better work on the film's underperforming sequel a few years later.

BC Smith wrote an appealingly funky score for the feature version of TV's THE MOD SQUAD, which was far more enjoyable than the film itself.

Mark Snow managed to move briefly away from television with a low-key, sentimental score for Antonio Banderas' directorial debut, CRAZY IN ALABAMA.

Stephen Warbeck was a surprising choice to score the amusing but much derided superhero spoof MYSTERY MAN, and Shirley Walker was brought in to help out with the final score.

Gabriel Yared made yet another venture into tragic Hollywood romance with the adaptation of the bestseller MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE.

Christopher Young had one of his highest grossing projects with ENTRAPMENT, an enjoyable but overfamiliar romantic heist caper for which he provided an effective score which was not quite as distinctive as his usual work. He wrote one of his less memorable scores for the urban thriller IN TOO DEEP, which lacked the thrilling action cues of his Set It Off. He had his first shot at an Oscar bait project with the biopic THE HURRICANE, mixing orchestral and vocal music for a suitably serious and emotional score.

B. MONKEY - Luis Bacalov
CRUEL INTENTIONS - John Ottman
GOODBYE, LOVER - John Barry
THE 13TH WARRIOR - Graeme Revell

Agnes Browne, All About My Mother, American Beauty, Angela's Ashes, Anna and the King, Arlington Road, The Astronaut's Wife, At First Sight, Being John Malkovich, Best Laid Plans, Bicentennial Man, Body Shots, The Bone Collector, Bowfinger, Brokedown Palace, The Cider House Rules, Cookie's Fortune, The Corruptor, Cotton Mary, Cradle Will Rock, Crazy in Alabama, Deep Blue Sea, The Deep End of the Ocean, Diamonds, Dogma, 8mm, End of Days, The End of the Affair, Endurance, Entrapment, eXistenZ , Eyes Wide Shut, Felicia's Journey, Fight Club, For Love of the Game, Friends and Lovers, Galaxy Quest, The General's Daughter, Girl Interrupted, Goodbye Lover, The Green Mile, Guinevere, The Haunting, Holy Smoke, House on Haunted Hill, The Hurricane, An Ideal Husband, Illuminata, In Dreams, In Too Deep, The Insider, Instinct, The Iron Giant, The King & I, Lake Placid, Last Night, The Legend of 1900, Liberty Heights, The Limey, The Loss of Sexual Innocence, The Love Letter, Lucie Aubrac, Magnolia, Mansfield Park, A Map of the World, The Matrix, Message in a Bottle, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, Metroland, Mickey Blue Eyes, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Minus Man, Miss Julie, Mr. Death, the Rise and Fall of Fred Leuchter Jr., Mumford, The Mummy, Muppets From Space, The Muse, October Sky, One Man's Hero, Onegin, Open Your Eyes, The Out of Towners, Payback, The Phantom Menace, Plunkett and Macleane, Princess Mononoke, Pushing Tin, Random Hearts, Ravenous, The Red Violin, Ride With the Devil, Run Lola Run, Simpatico, The Sixth Sense, Sleepy Hollow, Snow Falling on Cedars, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Stiff Upper Lips, Stigmata, Stir of Echoes, The Story of Us, The Straight Story, Stuart Little, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tarzan, Tea With Mussolini, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, The Third Miracle, The Thirteenth Floor, The 13th Warrior, The Thomas Crown Affair, Three Kings, Three Seasons, Titus, Toy Story 2, The Trio, Twin Falls Idaho, Universal Soldier: The Return, Virus, Wild Wild West, Wing Commander, The Winslow Boy, The World Is Not Enough

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