Brian has been tapped to score the upcoming Paramount romantic comedy "What Men Want". The movie is directed by Adam Shankman (A Walk To Remember, Rock Of Ages, Glee) and stars Taraji P. Henson (she's also an executive producer) and Tracy Morgan.
Randall D. Larson: You’ve also recently finished scoring WHAT MEN WANT, which is a gender reversal of the 2000 Mel Gibson film WHAT WOMEN WANT.
Brian Tyler: For this score, initially [director] Adam Shankman and I talked about doing something that was quite different. We were thinking that it probably would be closer to a CRAZY RICH ASIANS style of score, but it actually ends up being a cousin of that. The main character, she’s very strong but also very vulnerable at the same time; she’s struggling with a lot of life decisions when she happens upon this crazy supernatural ability to hear the thoughts of other people. But it’s told in a way that is really relatable. The vibe that I went for ended up being a kind of throwback quartet jazz with saxophone, piano, upright bass, and jazz drums, but much more pared down than CRAZY RICH ASIANS was. This was more of a soloistic type of thing within a jazz idiom. It also goes into a lot of funk and throwback soul music that’s really from the ‘70s as well as a bit of throwback to the 1990s in the style of the music. Some of it we recorded as if we were making a record from the ‘70s or the ‘90s. In that way we weren’t going for the traditional orchestral Hollywood score, this has a different twist on it, a very different vibe, musically. I’ve never done anything like it.
Randall D. Larson: Kind of akin to source-music-as-score except that it’s your original music?
Brian Tyler: Sort of, but they’re all thematically tied together. What’s really cool when you get to do that, it ends of being almost more like a musical, because in musicals you can do modern music, throwback music, whatever, but the thing that remains in a musical is that you have recapitulation of themes. In that sense, this is tried and true of any kind of programmatic music, from operas to Brahms to you-name-it. When you have repeated themes and restatements of musical ideas, regardless of what kind of superficial style that dress the music in, at the heart you want the music to speak and the scenes to speak. That’s something I’m a big proponent of in writing original music that’s thematic, regardless of genre.
You do realize the hilarious insinuation from your thread title, right? lol
Really? I don't want to know who you sleep with. That's not my problem, that's not Tyler's problem. That's your personal business.
My apologies, I forgot that jokes are off limits. This is clearly not a place for Michael Scott-isms. We shall return the discussion to the intricacies of "What Men Want"............................................
