FILM SCORE FRIDAY 4/28/06
By Scott Bettencourt
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On May 18th, 2006 John Scott will conduct the Hollywood
Symphony Orchestra's inaugural concert at UCLA'S Royce Hall, presenting
an assortment of film music including Logan's Run, Memoirs of a Geisha,
Sweet Smell of Success, King's Row, Scott of the Antarctic, A Streetcar
Named Desire, Around the World in 80 Days, Greystoke, and a symphonic
suite from Scott's own Antony and Cleopatra, featuring Michael York
and Samantha Eggar reading Shakespeare's dialogue. For more information,
go to http://www.uclalive.org.
If you want music for the Antichrist, Varese
Sarabande is the place to go. Following their Deluxe Editions of Jerry
Goldsmith's classic scores for the original Omen trilogy, as well
as their 1991 CD of Jonathan Sheffer's score for the TV sequel Omen
IV: The Awakening, they will release Marco Beltrami's score
for the imminent remake of the original THE OMEN. The new film seems
to follow the story of the original fairly closely, and is directed by
John Moore, who also directed the recent Flight of the Phoenix (also
scored by Beltrami), and who seems to be specializing in remakes of popular
Fox films that didn't really cry out for remakes. Liev Schreiber and Julia
Stiles play the couple who inadvertently adopt the son of Satan, with David
Thewlis as the photographer, Pete Postlethwaite as the priest, and Mia
Farrow as the nanny Mrs. Blaylock ("from the Agency.").
Beltrami discussed his score in a column by Ada Guerin in this week's
Spring Movie Music issue of The Hollywood Reporter: "The tricky
thing about scoring ('The Omen') is that I didn't want to copy (Goldsmith's
score). That would have been one way to do it since the remake is very
similar to the original, but I felt it would be better for the film if
the score was inspired by his work as opposed to duplicating it. I also
used the instruments in a similar fashion to the way he used them in the
original. There is a simple three-note figure from the original that I
used several times because Jerry has based the original score off those
three notes; all the themes were derived from those three notes. I have
a theme for Damien and his nanny, and I have a separate theme for the family.
I used a rhythm for the film that is based on the up and down motion of
a piano pedal. That's sort of the rhythmic force behind my score."
And on June 6th, the label will release James L. Venable's score
for the hit SCARY MOVIE 4.
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CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Marjorie Morningstar - Max Steiner - Screen Archives/BYU
The Sentinel - Christophe Beck - Varese Sarabande
IN THEATERS TODAY
Akeelah and the Bee - Aaron Zigman - Song CD on Lion's Gate with
4 score cues
The Devil's Miner - Leonardo Heiblum, Andes Solis
Guys & Balls - Martin Todsharow
I Am a Sex Addict - Hilary Soldati
R.V. - James Newton Howard
Stick It - Mike Simpson - Song CD on Hollywood with 1 score
cue
United 93 - John Powell
Water - Mychael Danna, A.R. Rahman - Score CD on Varese Sarabande
COMING SOON
May 2
The Promise - Klaus Badelt - Superb
May 9
Breakheart Pass - Jerry Goldsmith - La-La Land
The DaVinci Code - Hans Zimmer - Decca
Mission: Impossible III - Michael Giacchino - Varese Sarabande
Poseidon - Klaus Badelt - Interscope
May 16
The Curse of the Werewolf and Other Film Music - Benjamin Frankel
- Naxos
Over the Hedge - Rupert Gregson-Williams - Sony
When a Stranger Calls - James Dooley - Lakeshore
May 23
Letters from Argentina (concert piece) - Lalo Schifrin - Aleph
X-Men: The Last Stand - John Powell - Varese Sarabande
June 6
Abominable - Lalo Schifrin - Aleph
Cars - Randy Newman - Disney
Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins - Craig Safan - Perseverance
Scary Movie 4 - James L. Venable - Varese Sarabande
June 27
Superman Returns - John Ottman - Rhino
Date Unknown
Battlestar Galactica Season 2 - Bear McCreary - La-La Land
Dark Skies - Michael Hoenig - Perseverance
Dark Victory - Max Steiner - Screen Archives/BYU
Farscape Classics Vol. 2 - Guy Gross - La-La Land
The Film Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams Vol. 3 - Ralph Vaughan
Williams - Chandos
Joe 90 - Barry Gray - Silva
Murph the Surf - Philip Lambro - Perseverance
The Omen - Marco Beltrami - Varese Sarabande
The Prophecy - David Williams - Perseverance
The Prophecy II - David Williams - Perseverance
The Three Musketeers - Max Steiner - Screen Archives/BYU
True Grit (complete re-recording) - Elmer Bernstein - Tadlow
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
April 29 - Duke Ellington born (1889)
April 29 - Rod McKuen born (1933)
April 29 - Jan A.P. Kaczmarek born (1953)
April 29 - Chris Boardman born (1954)
April 29 - Lawrence Shragge born (1954)
May 1 - Heinz Roemheld born (1901)
May 1 - Bill Byers born (1927)
May 1 - Citizen Kane premieres in New York (1941)
May 1 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording score for Ace Eli
and Rodger of the Skies (1972)
May 1 - Gordon Jenkins died (1984)
May 1 - Bill Byers died (1996)
May 2 - Van Alexander born (1915)
May 2 - Satyajit Ray born (1921)
May 2 - Elliot Goldenthal born (1954)
May 2 - Aram Khachaturian died (1978)
May 3 - Hugo Friedhofer born (1901)
May 3 - Delia Derbyshire born (1937)
May 3 - David Raksin begins recording his score for Two Weeks
in Another Town (1962)
May 3 - Albert Glasser died (1998)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
ABOMINABLE - Lalo Schifrin
"On the upside, it was very nicely lensed by the late Neal L. Fredericks,
and has an excellent score by the venerable Lalo Schifrin. It might seem
bizarre for a low-budget horror film to snag a score by such a major figure,
until you realize that director Ryan Schifrin is his son."
Andy Klein, Los Angeles Citybeat
"You keep looking for a sign that its young writer-director, Ryan Schifrin,
is going for a tongue-in-cheek romp. But no, he seems to be deadly earnest.
He even prevailed upon his dad, Lalo Schifrin, to compose one of his most
cliche-ridden scores."
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
AMERICAN DREAMZ - Stephen Trask
"Production package is surprisingly average given the talents of d.p.
Robert Elswit, composer Stephen Trask, and production designer William
Arnold."
Robert Koehler, Variety
"Also sitcom-ish are the film's production values. Like the unconvincing
prosthetic belly and bald scalp worn by Willem Dafoe's Dick Cheney/Karl
Rove composite, the costumes, dialogue and score in 'Dreamz' are more cartoonish
than they probably should be."
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter
THE SENTINEL - Christophe Beck
"Revealing the co-conspirators is not a spoiler - at least not in the
usual sense. Director Clark Johnson, his cinematographer and composer have
united to perpetrate a coverup. From the start, they spin the camera and
churn the music in tiring, familiar ways. 'I am Washington-based thriller,
see me zoom, hear my portentous French horns.' The editor is likely in
on it too. Granted, tricking up the genre is not a federal crime, but sometimes
it should be a movie misdemeanor."
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
"Cindy Mollo's sharp editing works in fluid rhythm with Christophe Beck's
electronic score, though the results tend more toward a pleasing sense
of percussion than any genuine heightening of suspense."
Justin Chang, Variety
"This D.C./Toronto production does benefit from Gabriel Beristain's
deep-color cinematography, Cindy Mollo's sharp editing, Andrew McAlpine's
solid production design and Christophe Beck's rousing score."
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
SILENT HILL - Jeff Danna
"Accompanied by an ominous industrial soundtrack and a tough-but-cute
motorcycle cop (Laurie Holden), Rose is a determined mother who keeps running
into swarms of cockroach- like critters and a hulking figure with a large
pyramid-shaped blade for a head."
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
"Tech contribs are first-rate down the line, including those of myriad
f/x companies. The occasional trip-hop beats of Jeff Danna's score, however,
seem a tad incongruous; musique-concrete creepiness a la tomandandy ('The
Hills Have Eyes') would have better suited surreal, timeless tenor."
Dennis Harvey, Variety
THE WILD - Alan Silvestri
"The animation is cheesy; the banter isn't funny; the score is noisy
and grating; and the critters look like stuffed animals."
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
For those who enjoy incredibly inaccurate predictions,
here are my guesses for the top ten box office grossers of the summer of
2006:
1. Cars
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
3. Mission: Impossible 3
4. Superman Returns
5. X-Men: The Last Stand
6. The DaVinci Code
7. Click
8. Over the Hedge
9. Poseidon
10. Miami Vice
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