THE TOP FORTY COUNTDOWN 2006: PART TWO

Last week, these ten composers received the greatest honor of their lives, in this, the Kennedy Center Honors of film music website series:

31. Edward Shearmur
32. Theodore Shapiro
33. Dario Marianelli
34. Alberto Iglesias
35. Elliot Goldenthal
36. Klaus Badelt
37. Carter Burwell
38. Mark Mothersbaugh
39. Teddy Castellucci
40. Aaron Zigman

Now, it's time for ten more brave filmmusic warriors to enter the field of honor. As the ads for the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre asked: Who will survive, and what will be left of them?

2005 RANKING: 31
AGE: 50
BIRTHPLACE: Auckland, New Zealand
REPRESENTATION: Kraft-Engel
ONGOING FILMMAKER RELATIONSHIPS: David Twohy, Carl Franklin, Robert Rodriguez, Danny Cannon
FAN FAVORITE: Dead Calm
BACKGROUND: Trained in piano and French horn, psychiatric orderly, rock band SPK
TYPECAST IN: Thrillers, superheroes
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider--131
2. Daredevil--102
3. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle--87
4. Freddy vs. Jason--82
5. Sin City--73
6. The Saint--61
7. The Chronicles of Riddick--58
8. Spawn--54
9. Blow--52
10. The Crow--50

For a composer who has had few true blockbuster hits (of his projects, only Daredevil and the first Tomb Raider have crossed the 100 million mark) and who is relentlessly typecast in thrillers, horror films and action movies (despite the occasional mold-breaking project like the Charlie Kaufman/Michel Gondry fantasy comedy Human Nature and the latest TV retelling of the Anne Frank story), Revell continues to be greatly in demand and impressively prolific. It probably helps that his dour, percussive approach is a style popular with today's filmmakers, and he's clearly willing to suppress his ego on projects like Robert Rodriguez' Sin City and Shark Boy and Lava Girl, where he was one of three composers sharing scoring duties. He's even stumbled into the strange niche of being the composer for John Carpenter remakes, as he scored last year's Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog re-dos, though it illustrates the state of today's film scoring that Revell's work was actually less thematically driven than Carpenter's self-composed, synth based originals.

WHAT'S NEXT: Harsh Times, Goal

2005 RANKING: 15
AGE: 52
BIRTHPLACE: Los Angeles, California
REP: First Artists Management
1 OSCAR NOMINATION
RELATIONSHIPS: Brian Levant, Danny DeVito, Stephen Herek, Raja Gosnell, Steve Carr
BACKGROUND: Son of Alfred Newman, studio musician, low-budget films
FAN FAVORITE: Galaxy Quest
TYPECAST IN: Comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Ice Age--176
2. Scooby-Doo--153
3. The Flintstones--130
4. The Nutty Professor--128
5. Nutty Professor II: The Klumps--123
6. Dr. Dolittle 2--112
7. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days--105
8. Daddy Day Care--104
9. The Cat in the Hat--100
10. The War of the Roses--86

Newman finally broke out of the comedy rut with his score for Joss Whedon's sci-fi Western Serenity, his lively music evoking the intimate, acoustic sound of Greg Edmonson's scores for the Firefly TV series while harking back to the early days of Newman's career, when he was employed in a wide variety of genres including sci-fi and horror. Unfortunately, despite first-rate reviews even from mainstream critics, Serenity was not a boxoffice hit (his last hit were the Ice Cube comedy Are We There Yet? and the dreadful Monster-in-Law, which aren't the kind of films a composer can build a career on) and unless he fights typecasting we should expect to see him wasting his talents again on more comedies like his hits Daddy Day Care and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days all too soon.

2005 RANKING: 28
AGE: 43
BIRTHPLACE: Luton, England
REP: First Artists Management
1 GRAMMY
RELATIONSHIPS: Scott Rudin, Eon Productions, John Singleton, Michael Apted
BACKGROUND: Pop music producer
FAN FAVORITES: Stargate, Tomorrow Never Dies
TYPECAST IN: Action
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Independence Day--306
2. Die Another Day--160
3. Godzilla--136
4. 2 Fast 2 Furious--127
5. The World Is Not Enough--126
6. Tomorrow Never Dies--125
7. Four Brothers--74
8. Stargate--71
9. Shaft--70
10. Changing Lanes--66

Arnold first attained prominence with his collaboration with director Roland Emmerich, and their Independence Day proved to be the highest grossing film either of them would make (at least so far). The partnership ended when the pair didn't see eye to eye on The Patriot (and Emmerich has since found a new regular composer in Harald Kloser, who even co-wrote the director's upcoming film 10,000 B.C.), but other filmmakers have proven much more loyal to Arnold. He's scored four films for John Singleton, and his funky urban music for the modest hit Four Brothers was a pleasant echo of his hugely entertaining score for Shaft. On his schedule is a third film for director Michael Apted, and the historical drama Amazing Grace may give Arnold fans a chance to hear what he might have done with The Patriot. Right now in theaters is the Brian Jones biopic Stoned, a guilty pleasure which features a lot more Arnold scoring than you'd expect from a film about a real life rock band, while at the end of the year he helps usher in a new James Bond (and a potential rebirth of the series) with Casino Royale.

WHAT'S NEXT: Amazing Grace, Casino Royale

2005 RANKING: 25
AGE: 52
BIRTHPLACE: Johannesburg, South Africa
REP: Kraft-Engel
BACKGROUND: Rock guitarist for the band Yes, Media Ventures
RELATIONSHIPS: Jerry Bruckheimer
FAN FAVORITE: Armageddon
TYPECAST IN: Action, interracial sports youth dramas
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Armageddon--201
2. National Treasure--172
3. Bad Boys II--138
4. Remember the Titans--115
5. Enemy of the State--111
6. Gone in 60 Seconds--101
7. Con Air--101
8. Deep Blue Sea--73
9. Coach Carter--66
10. Kangaroo Jack--65

Trevor Rabin's finest work to date finally reached the screen last year, as John Dahl's long delayed true-life WWII adventure story The Great Raid was strongly helped by its score, balancing a strong main theme, varied orchestrations, and impressive restraint. Unfortunately, the film was seen by practically no one, so Rabin returned to his particular niche -- inspirational sports stories. Remember the Titans had been one of his biggest hits (and featured one of his better scores), so he was an inevitable choice to score two more stories of interracial athletics, both modest hits -- 2005's Coach Carter and this year's Glory Road. Right now he's probably just biding his time until National Treasure 2.

2005 RANKING: 34
AGE: 55
BIRTHPLACE: London, England
REP: Gorfaine/Schwartz
BACKGROUND: Stage actor, theater composer
5 OSCAR NOMINATIONS
1 EMMY, 2 NOMINATIONS
2 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES: Gandhi, Dangerous Liaisons
RELATIONSHIPS: Nora Ephron, Stephen Frears, Andy Tennant, Richard Attenborough, Nicholas Hytner, Ken Loach
FAN FAVORITE: Dangerous Beauty
TYPECAST IN: Romantic comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Hitch--159
2. Sweet Home Alabama--127
3. You've Got Mail--115
4. Groundhog Day--70
5. Ever After--65
6. Bewitched--62
7. Gandhi--52
8. Anna and the King--39
9. Last Holiday--38
10. Dangerous Liaisons--32

Fenton has been impressively prolific of late, with five fiction films released in the last year or so (not counting Deep Blue, the feature version of the Blue Planet documentary series), but his best score of the group was actually for the least heralded of the five -- for the CGI carrier pigeon comedy Valiant, he supplied a lively pastiche score that fit nicely in the WWII adventure tradition of fellow Englishmen like Ron Goodwin and Malcolm Arnold. The Oscar-nominated Mrs. Henderson Presents returned him to the same period for a charming showbiz pastiche, while his three Hollywood films were all romantic comedies -- Bewitched, Last Holiday, and the blockbuster Hitch, for which much of Fenton's score was sacrificed for songs. Like David Newman, one wishes that Fenton could return to the more varied genre projects of his early career -- it would be great to hear another Company of Wolves or We're No Angels from him.

2005 RANKING: 24
AGE: 34
BIRTHPLACE: Montreal, Canada
REP: Kraft-Engel
1 EMMY, 2 NOMINATIONS
RELATIONSHIPS: Audrey Wells, Shawn Levy
BACKGROUND: USC film scoring program (under Jerry Goldsmith), TV composer
FAN FAVORITE: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
TYPECAST IN: Youth/family comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Cheaper by the Dozen--137
2. American Wedding--104
3. The Pink Panther--80 (as of 3/19/06)
4. Garfield--75
5. Bring It On--68
6. Without a Paddle--58
7. Just Married--56
8. Yours, Mine & Ours--53
9. A Cinderella Story--51
10. The Tuxedo--50

Beck is finally starting to break out of the comedy rut, though his latest hit is yet another comedy from Cheaper by the Dozen director Shawn Levy -- but though the new Pink Panther may help boost Beck's resume, his disappointing score is a far from worthy successor to the great Mancini tradition. Last fall he had a change-of-pace project with the gambling drama Two for the Money, but the film made only a paltry 22 million and the L.A. Times critic called his score "a soundtrack that alternates between Rocky-style camp rock, waka-waka porn music and the theme to 'Monday Night Football.'" A more promising assignment is the upcoming Secret Service thriller The Sentinel, his first action-oriented film since Elektra, which returns Michael Douglas to leading man status and gives Keifer Sutherland another role in the 24 vein.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Sentinel

2005 RANKING: 18
AGE: 47
BIRTHPLACE: Glasgow, Scotland
1 GRAMMY NOMINATION
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES: Moulin Rouge, Ray
RELATIONSHIPS: Baz Luhrmann, Philip Noyce
BACKGROUND: Royal Academy of Music, pop songwriter/arranger
FAN FAVORITE: Moulin Rouge
TYPECAST IN: Romantic comedy
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Ray--75
2. The Bone Collector--66
3. Love, Actually--59
4. Moulin Rouge--57
5. William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet--46
6. Must Love Dogs--43
7. Fever Pitch--41
8. Kiss of the Dragon--36
9. The Quiet American--12
10. The Clearing--5

Considering that his earlier career was dominated by brooding scores such as The Bone Collector and The Quiet American, it's nice that Armstrong has recently moved in the opposite direction, following his well regarded Love, Actually score with pleasantly restrained romantic comedy scores for Fever Pitch and Must Love Dogs. While he has yet to score a blockbuster (his highest grosser, Ray, made a respectable 75 million), he has two Best Picture nominees to his credit, and his next project, a 9/11 rescue story starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Oliver Stone, could be a major hit and award contender if handled properly (though Armstrong should be warned -- Stone is not the easiest director for composers not named John Williams. Most of Georges Delerue's Platoon score was dialed out, and Jerry Goldsmith left Wall Street before scoring sessions began).
 
WHAT'S NEXT: World Trade Center

2005 RANKING: 17
AGE: 45
BIRTHPLACE: Haselmere, England
REP: Kraft-Engel
1 OSCAR, 3 NOMINATIONS
1 EMMY NOMINATION
2 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES: The Cider House Rules, Chocolat
RELATIONSHIPS: Harvey Weinstein, Jonathan Demme, Doug McGrath
BACKGROUND: Oxford, British TV composer
FAN FAVORITE: The Cider House Rules
TYPECAST IN: Period comedy-drama
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Chocolat--71
2. The Manchurian Candidate--65
3. Mona Lisa Smile--63
4. The Cider House Rules--57
5. To Wong Foo--36
6. Addicted to Love--34
7. The Joy Luck Club--32
8. Because of Winn-Dixie--32
9. The Legend of Bagger Vance--30
10. Emma--22

Portman saw the release of one of her loveliest and most impressive works last year, but it was not a film score -- her opera based on Saint-Exupery's classic The Little Prince was a charming and varied piece, unmistakably Portman, whose TV production even earned the composer her first Emmy nomination. She was originally announced for the hit thriller Flightplan but James Horner ultimately got the assignment, while her usual strengths were on display for her second Charles Dickens-based feature, Roman Polanski's remake of Oliver Twist, which earned several excellent reviews and a whopping one million dollars at the U.S. boxoffice. Her next project, Infamous, is her third project for Emma director Douglas McGrath, but is likely to be known to most people as "the other Capote movie." It will be interesting to see how her interpretation of the famous writer and his life differs from Mychael Danna's acclaimed, low-key score to that Oscar winner.

WHAT'S NEXT: Infamous

2005 RANKING: 36
AGE: 48
BIRTHPLACE: Redbanks, New Jersey
REP: First Artists
BACKGROUND: UCLA Music Department (under David Raksin), low-budget features
2 EMMY NOMINATIONS
RELATIONSHIPS: Jon Amiel, Sam Raimi
FAN FAVORITE: Hellraiser
TYPECAST IN: Horror, thrillers
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. The Grudge--110
2. Entrapment--87
3. The Exorcism of Emily Rose--75
4. Swordfish--69
5. Species--60
6. The Hurricane--50
7. Runaway Jury--49
8. Bandits--41
9. Urban Legend--38
10. Set It Off--36

While his career has been dotted with the occasional hunk of Oscar bait -- The Hurricane, Wonder Boys, The Shipping News -- it is horror where Young had his first assignments and continues to have his biggest hits, with last year's The Exorcism of Emily Rose proving one of his top grossers ­- in some ways an ironic assignment, since he had previously been attached to the third and fourth Exorcist films. Though some recent projects have met less desirable fates -- the Jeff Bridges thriller Scenes of the Crime went straight to video, the remake of The Devil and Daniel Webster is mired in legal troubles, and his score for An Unfinished Life was thrown out at the last minute (so late in the game that some critics blamed him for Deborah Lurie's score) -- his additional scoring for the blockbuster Spider-Man 2 may have proved to be the smartest assignment he ever took. Not only is he scoring the Nicolas Cage comic book adventure Ghost Rider, but he's been announced as the composer for 2007's Spider-Man 3, which could potentially outgross all his previous projects in its first weekend alone.

WHAT'S NEXT: Spider-Man 3, Ghost Rider

2005 RANKING: Not Ranked
AGE: 54
BIRTHPLACE: Buenos Aires, Argentina
REP: First Artists
1 OSCAR
BEST PICTURE NOMINEE: Brokeback Mountain
BACKGROUND: South American rock composer/producer
RELATIONSHIPS: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
FAN FAVORITE: The Motorcycle Diaries
TYPECAST IN: Drama
TOP GROSSING FILMS:
1. Brokeback Mountain--82 (3/26/06)
2. North Country--18
3. The Motorcycle Diaries--16
4. 21 Grams--16
5. Amores Perros--5

This Argentine composer's work was first heard on American movie screens when director Michael Mann used his piece "Iguazu" in the Oscar-nominated The Insider. Santaolalla has since scored five films which received U.S. releases, and amazingly all have been Oscar-nominees -- the Mexican drama Amores Perros, the same director's English-language 21 Grams, the young-Che-biopic The Motorcycle Diaries, the sexual harassment drama North Country and, most notably, 2005's "gay cowboy" drama Brokeback Mountain, for which Santaolalla composed much of the music before seeing the film, based on the script and his discussions with director Ang Lee. While the film did not win the Best Picture Oscar as many had predicted, the composer did win Best Score, and his sparse, acoustic music helped reinforce the pain and loneliness of the film's hard luck protagonists. His next film, Babel, is his third for Amores/Grams director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and though there's no guarantee of any Oscar nominations, it stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, so someone's bound to see it.

WHAT'S NEXT: Babel

According to his unofficial website, Alan Silvestri is scoring "Click". Teddy Castellucci will be scoring another gimmick comedy for Revolution: the Bugs Bunny cartoon rip-off, "Little Man", which reunites him with the Wayanses.

I guess I missed that Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs dresses as a baby, gets his rectal temperature taken, and sexually molests his "mother." Sounds like a classic.

If nothing else, it's nice that the Wayans Brothers have made a movie that looks even more disturbing than White Chicks. I would have never thought it possible.

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