THE TOP FORTY COUNTDOWN 2006: PART ONE

Inspector Clouseau is back, James Bond is coming back, those lovable Hills Have Eyes mutants are back, and this, everyone's favorite website padding column series, is back for another year of numbing statistics and arbitrary rankings. We considered rating the composers by having them all perform THX-1138's classic "Be Happy Again" in an American Idol-style sing-off, but we decided to rank them on other factors instead.

And for those hoping to skip to end of the list -- yes, John Williams will be number one again. I mean, come on -- he had four films out last year, two were boxoffice blockbusters and the other two earned him Oscar nominations (bringing his total up to 45), one of which was his tenth Best Picture nominee and the other was arguably the most acclaimed score of the year. Just because he steals all his music from James Horner is no reason to underappreciate him.

Our list this year runs the gamut from A to Z, and that's just composer number forty...

2005 RANKING: Not ranked
AGE: Unavailable
BIRTHPLACE: Unavailable
REPRESENTATION: Kraft-Engel
BACKGROUND: Concert composer, music producer
ONGOING FILMMAKER RELATIONSHIPS: Nick Cassavetes
FAN FAVORITE: The Notebook
TYPECAST IN: Urban youth stories
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The Notebook--81 (U.S. gross in millions)
2. John Q.--71
3. In the Mix--10

Zigman first emerged on the film music scene with two hit films for director Nick Cassavetes. The eclectic John Q. score, though never released on CD, was surprisingly popular with moviegoers, while the old-fashioned The Notebook allowed him to work in a more traditional vein while balancing emotion and restraint. Though he was little heard from in the year following Notebook's release, he now seems to be nearly everywhere, while specializing in the kind of films Film Score Monthly readers aren't likely to catch. Late last year he scored Usher's inevitable starring vehicle, the quickly forgotten In the Mix, and follows it with four stories of troubled youth -- the spelling bee drama Akeelah and the Bee, the African-American-themed ATL, the high school ballroom dancing story Take the Lead, and Alpha Dog, his third film for director Cassavetes. He is also working on a potentially more orchestra friendly project, the trouble-plagued remake of My Friend Flicka.

WHAT'S NEXT: Akeelah and the Bee, Alpha Dog, Flicka, ATL, Take the Lead

2005 RANKING: 39
AGE: Unavailable
REP: Greenspan Artist Management
BACKGROUND: Saxophonist, studio musician for Michael Jackson, Linda Rondstadt, Dizzy Gillespie, others
RELATIONSHIPS: Adam Sandler, Peter Segal, Steven Brill
FAN FAVORITE: Little Nicky
TYPECAST IN: Low comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Big Daddy--163
2. The Longest Yard--158
3. Anger Management--134
4. Mr. Deeds--126
5. 50 First Dates--119
6. The Wedding Singer--80
7. White Chicks--69
8. Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo--65
9. The Animal--57
10. Little Nicky--39

For a composer who's had so many hit films, Castellucci must have the lowest profile of anyone in the field, but that's not surprising since all of his hundred million dollar hits are Adam Sandler vehicles, and Sandler is the least heralded of movie stars -- most people wouldn't think to put him on the A-list with Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt, but he's just about the most dependable boxoffice draw today. Outside of some rare composer promo CDs, Castellucci's music has yet to be heard apart from his films, but the Sandler vehicles have allowed him to work in an impressive variety of milieu, from a Southern prison (Longest Yard) to old money mansions (Mr. Deeds) to Hell itself (Little Nicky). Castellucci is starting to get work in non-Sandler vehicles, like the Martin Lawrence flop Rebound and the Lindsay Lohan romantic fantasy Just My Luck, and he's bound to have another blockbuster with the Sandler comedy-fantasy Click.
 
WHAT'S NEXT: Click, Just My Luck

2005 RANKING: Not ranked
AGE: 55
BIRTHPLACE: Akron, Ohio
REP: Greenspan Artist Management
1 EMMY NOMINATION
RELATIONSHIPS: Wes Anderson, Klasky-Csupo, Catherine Hardwicke
BACKGROUND: Rock singer-songwriter (Devo)
FAN FAVORITE: The Royal Tenenbaums
TYPECAST IN: Kids comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Rugrats: The Movie--100
2. Rugrats in Paris--76
3. Herbie: Fully Loaded--66
4. The Royal Tenenbaums--50
5. Rugrats Go Wild--39
6. Happy Gilmore--38
7. Good Boy!--37
8. The Ringer--35
9. Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen--29
10. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle--26

Mothersbaugh's scores for director Wes Anderson remain his strongest work for the screen, original and distinctive, but it's his family-oriented projects that keep him employable. The Lindsay Lohan retooling of the Love Bug franchise didn't give the composer much room to offer his sensibility, but he spoke favorably of his working relationship with director Angela Robinson and the film outgrossed each of his Anderson projects, topped only by the Rugrats movies. Lords of Dogtown was a rare venture into drama, re-teaming him with the director of Thirteen, but despite its many qualities the movie didn't find a bigscreen audience, and Mothersbaugh's score blended so seamlessly with the period music that one might not have noticed there was a score. The Ringer proved to be a modest success, though his own music was less memorable than the prominent use of Elmer Bernstein's classic Magnificent Seven music. It may take another Wes Anderson film for us to hear Mothersbaugh at his strongest again.

2005 RANKING: 29
AGE: 50
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
REP: CAA
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES: Fargo
RELATIONSHIPS: Joel & Ethan Coen, Spike Jonze, John Lee Hancock, Bill Condon
BACKGROUND: Harvard (architecture, animation), punk rock
FAN FAVORITE: Fargo
TYPECAST IN: Offbeat comedy-drama
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The General's Daughter--102
2. Conspiracy Theory--75
3. The Rookie--75
4. Three Kings--60
5. A Knight's Tale--55
6. The Jackal--54
7. Doc Hollywood--54
8. Wayne's World 2--47
9. O Brother Where Art Thou--43
10. The Ladykillers--39

Just as his regular collaborators the Coen Brothers have been absent from filmmaking since The Ladykillers two years ago, Burwell has himself been away from film scoring. His only major feature project for 2005 was Joss Whedon's Serenity, but director and composer ended up not seeing eye to eye on the score, and David Newman ultimately scored the well reviewed but little seen film. The stage production Theater for the New Ear, featuring Burwell-scored "sound plays," was well reviewed, and the composer is currently working on a not-quite-biopic of photographer Diane Arbus (starring Nicole Kidman) from the director of Secretary.

WHAT'S NEXT: Fur

2005 RANKING: 35
AGE: Unavailable
BIRTHPLACE: Germany
REP: Gorfaine/Schwartz
BACKGROUND: German cinema, Media Ventures
RELATIONSHIPS: Kurt Wimmer
FAN FAVORITE: The Time Machine
TYPECAST IN: Action
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean--305
2. Constantine--75
3. The Time Machine--55
4. The Recruit--52
5. Catwoman--40
6. K19: The Widowmaker--35
7. 16 Blocks--30 (as of 3/19/06)
8. Basic--26
9. Ultraviolet--17 (3/19/06)
10. Equilibrium--1

As the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise continues without him with back-to-back sequels scored by Badelt's mentor Hans Zimmer, Badelt is managing to stay plenty busy. He scored last year's Chinese submission for Best Foreign Language Feature, the lavish martial arts fantasy The Promise, which is finally getting a U.S. release this spring from Warner Independent. A few weeks ago he enjoyed the rare honor of having two films released on the same day: while some film music fans felt his music for Richard Donner's 16 Blocks was the director's worst score ever (apparently some people haven't played their copies of Radio Flyer lately -- "Mix the Potion" anyone?), Badelt's rhythmic music was subdued and effective, while his techno-dominated score for the futuristic action flick Ultraviolet gave that dreadful film some desperately needed energy. This summer he returns with his biggest assignment since Pirates, Wolfgang Peterson's lavish, megabudget remake of The Poseidon Adventure, for which Badelt has the unenviable task of following in the capsized, half submerged footsteps of John T. Williams.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Promise, Poseidon

2005 RANKING: 19
AGE: 51
BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York
REP: Gorfaine/Schwartz
1 OSCAR, 4 NOMINATIONS
1 EMMY NOMINATION
2 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS
1 TONY NOMINATION
RELATIONSHIPS: Neil Jordan, Julie Taymor
BACKGROUND: Manhattan School of Music (under Aaron Copland & John Corigliano), concert and stage composer
FAN FAVORITE: Interview with the Vampire
TYPECAST IN: Sci-fi adventure
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Batman Forever--184
2. SWAT--116
3. A Time to Kill--108
4. Batman and Robin--107
5. Interview with the Vampire--105
6. Heat--67
7. Demolition Man--58
8. Pet Sematary--57
9. Alien 3--54
10. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within--32

While SWAT proved again that Goldenthal can successfully score a film that has nothing but boxoffice on its mind, the classically trained concert composer has spent the time since that summer 2003 hit working on a project closer to his heart -- an opera based on John Gardner's novel Grendel (Beowulf as retold from the monster's point of view), directed of course by Goldenthal's perennial partner and collaborator, Julie Taymor. We eagerly await what is likely to be his most ambitious work, but as look forward to his return to film scoring with Taymor's '60s romance and Neil Jordan's Borgias biopic.

WHAT'S NEXT: Borgia, Across the Universe

2005 RANKING: Not Ranked
AGE: 51
BIRTHPLACE: Guipozca, Spain
REP: RLM
BACKGROUND: Electronic music, European film composer
1 OSCAR NOMINATION
RELATIONSHIPS: Pedro Almodovar, Julio Medem
FAN FAVORITE: Bad Education
TYPECAST IN: Romantic/erotic drama
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The Constant Gardener--33
2. Talk to Her--9
3. All About My Mother--8
4. Bad Education--5
5. The Dancer Upstairs--2
6. Live Flesh--1
7. The Flower Of My Secret--1

For several years, Iglesias had earned positive attention for his romantic, orchestral scores for the films of fellow Spaniard Pedro Almodovar, especially his Herrmannesque music for Bad Education. Last year he worked in a markedly different vein with the acclaimed film of John LeCarre's The Constant Gardener, combining a fresh, African-themed sound with the influence of Ennio Morricone in a score that managed to earn an Oscar nomination, a surprising honor from the Academy's usually insular Music Branch. Having proved he can work successfully apart from the Spanish cinema, it will be interesting to see what Iglesias does with a more traditional Hollywood project -- if he ever decides to take one on.

WHAT'S NEXT: Volver

2005 RANKING: Not ranked
AGE: Unavailable
BIRTHPLACE: Pisa, Italy
REP: Air Edel
1 OSCAR NOMINATION
BACKGROUND: Theater and dance composer, concert composer, European cinema
FAN FAVORITES: The Brothers Grimm
TYPECAST IN: Arthouse fare
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Pride and Prejudice--38
2. The Brothers Grimm--37
3. V for Vendetta--25 (3/19/06)
4. I Capture the Castle--1

This Italian-born composer has been hovering on the edge of international recognition for several years, with such varied projects as the Irish comedy thriller I Went Down, the coming-of-age romance I Capture the Castle, and Michael Winterbottom's devastating immigration docudrama In This World, for which Marianelli provided an especially moving score. The composer burst into the limelight last year with a satisfying large-scale symphonic score for Terry Gilliam's long-delayed The Brothers Grimm, and followed this lavish fantasy with a very different film and a very different composition, giving the acclaimed remake of Pride & Prejudice a gentle, piano dominated score whose discreetly romantic cues had the emotional impact of a Golden Age classic and earned him an Oscar nomination, a particular surprise for such a relative newcomer. Right now in theaters he has the adaptation of Alan Moore's dazzling graphic novel V for Vendetta, with his eclectic, powerful music providing effective support for this stylish and daring project.

WHAT'S NEXT: Opal Dream, Shooting Dogs

2005 RANKING: 20
AGE: 34
BIRTHPLACE: Washington D.C.
REP: Gorfaine/Schwartz
BACKGROUND: Julliard, concert composer
RELATIONSHIPS: Tod Phillips, John Hamburg, Michael Showalter
FAN FAVORITE: Heist
TYPECAST IN: Comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story--114
2. Fun with Dick and Jane--110
3. Starsky & Hutch--88
4. Along Came Polly--87
5. Old School--74
6. 13 Going on 30--57
7. Not Another Teen Movie--38
8. Heist--23
9. View from the Top--15
10. State and Main--6

Typecast in comedy scoring despite his work as a concert composer, Shapiro had a string of hits in 2004 but surprisingly was barely heard from in 2005, and his expected breakthrough into sci-fi action scoring with Aeon Flux ended up with his replacement by a composing team (Klimek & Heil) who were themselves replaced by Graeme Revell (all for a film which only earned 24 mil at the boxoffice). He recovered with his second highest grossing film, the Jim Carrey remake of Fun with Dick and Jane, though in an unfortunate 2005 trend, several pieces from the temp track ended up in the final film. His next comedy project could allow room for some imaginative scoring, as Luke Wilson stars as an ordinary man who finds himself the most intelligent person in the next millennium in Mike Judge's sci-fi comedy Idiocracy, while the inevitable film of The Devil Wears Prada has a good chance of being another boxoffice smash.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Devil Wears Prada, Idiocracy

2005 RANKING: 30
AGE: 39
BIRTHPLACE: London, England
REP: Gorfaine/Schwartz
BACKGROUND: Eton College, Royal College of Music, apprentice to Michael Kamen
RELATIONSHIPS: Neal Moritz, Iain Softley, Peter Howitt, McG, Rodrigo Garcia
FAN FAVORITE: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
TYPECAST IN: Female action comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Charlie's Angels--125
2. Miss Congeniality--105
3. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle--100
4. Blue Streak--68
5. The Count of Monte Cristo--54
6. K-PAX--50
7. The Skeleton Key--47
8. Reign of Fire--43
9. Cruel Intentions--38
10. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow--37

2005 didn't give Shearmur any projects that might have allowed him to demonstrate the symphonic breadth of his popular score for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and none of the four films he had released last year were especially dependent on his music. For the disappointing remake of The Bad News Bears, he paid homage to his predecessor Jerry Fielding by basing his score on Bizet, but though it was a novelty to hear Carmen reworked in a 21st century style, it didn't in any way improve on what Fielding had done nearly three decades earlier. He wrote effective horror music with a bayou flavor for The Skeleton Key, his third film for director Ian Softley, further demonstrating his range, while his trance-infused suspense score for Derailed was a lot classier than that turkey deserved. Ironically, his most memorable film of 2005, the powerful but little seen drama Nine Lives, had only a minimal amount of music, but knowing when not to score is one of the most important talents a film composer can possess.

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