Kawai's sound is too distinct and singular (especially the way he orchestrates his strings) for a Hollywood blockbuster, sadly. His music stands out, and that's a no-go. Mansell's score will be Zimmery wallpaper, probably.
Are you familiar with the work of Clint Mansell? Requiem for a Dream, Sahara, Moon, The Fountain, Black Swan? If you are, what leads you to think his score for Ghost in the Shell will be "Zimmery wallpaper"? The genre? If that's your main concern, Shell's director pulled a heartbreakingly beautiful score from James Newton Howard for his last genre blockbuster, Snow White & The Huntsman. I have no reason to believe he won't request the same of Mansell or that Mansell won't deliver.
I'm familiar with Mansell and he unfortunately leaves me cold; his Aronofsky scores are very bland and overrated IMO. Philip Glass shows him up terribly on the Stoker score with one single cue.
And JNH's Snow White score is solid, but fantasy films still have the luxury of some expression, mainly due to the popularity of Howard Shore's work in the genre I'd bet. Science fiction scoring in Hollywood is sadly moribund.
Ah, well I guess we differ in our opinions of Mansell then. I think he makes fascinating melody-based music. Still, I suspect he will remain true to his style here, except perhaps where he might be asked to incorporate Kawai's music if that turns out to be the case.
Without actually knowing anything about what's going on, my guess would be that Balfe was brought in late in the game to write additional cues, perhaps as a response to test audience feedback. Isn't the music usually one of the go-to "quick fixes" when a film tests poorly? As if bringing in a new composer will suddenly miraculously mend any core problems with the script, the directing, the editing, anything and everything? So there are probably a handful of Balfe cues now that will underscore an action sequence here, a shoot-em-up there. At this point, however, I'm sure the album has been locked, pressed, and launched, and will surely feature only Mansell's original score.
At this point, however, I'm sure the album has been locked, pressed, and launched, and will surely feature only Mansell's original score.
Considering Lakeshore's website doesn't even list the album as "coming soon" anymore, there's no mention of it on Lakeshore's Facebook page, and Amazon's site doesn't have cover art, I'm guessing this is not the case.
I was actually bored out of my skull just watching the trailer for this when it was shown before KONG SKULL ISLAND, so the thought of sitting through 2 hours worth could destroy me. Based on how dire it looked, I'd say it now has the composer it deserves.
It looks 100% like the anime, down to the shot composition. I would think that logically if you're not a fan of one, you should probably avoid the other...
