Intrada has announced two new CD releases -- one an utterly unexpected (well, except for the hints) and incredibly welcome expansion of a hugely enjoyable late work by one of the all-time masters, the other an impressive, striking (and rejected) score for a cult classic by a fan favorite.

The enormous success of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman did not lead to a flood of comic book superhero movies -- that flood followed the success of X-Men in 2000 and Spider-Man in 2002, and we're still soaking in it -- but it did lead to a handful of adventure films based on vintage (or faux-vintage) source material, including 1991's The Rocketeer, 1996's The Phantom, and THE SHADOW, Russell Mulcahy's 1994 film version of the classic radio series and adventure stories, starring Alec Baldwin, John Lone, Penelope Ann Miller, Ian McKellan, Peter Boyle and Jonathan Winters. The film was a lavish box-office disappointment, but one of its strongest elements was the lively orchestral score by Jerry Goldsmith, with a memorable main theme for The Shadow and exciting music for his nemesis, Shiwan Kahn, complete with thrilling percussion. The original soundtrack CD from Arista featured only a half-hour of Goldsmith's score, plus other material including a Taylor Dayne song. The Intrada Shadow is a two-disc set featuring Goldsmith's full, 85-minute score (including two different approaches to the finale), as well as bonus cues (such as source cues composed by Dennis Dreith) and the original soundtrack sequencing. I think I speak for many Goldsmith fans when I say -- thank you, Intrada.

Earlier this year, Intrada released James Horner's breakthrough score for Michael Wadleigh's stylish, ambitious 1981 sci-fi horror film WOLFEN, and the label has followed it up with the first commercial release (it was previously issued as a composer promo) of Craig Safan's original, rejected score for the film. For one of the composer's first major projects, he took a somber approach to the score quite different from Horner's warmer, more accessibly melodic score, and the end result was one of Safan's most striking works, almost unrecognizable as from the composer of such fan favorites as The Last Starfighter and Remo Williams. (Film music fans who appreciate this darker Safan should track down Intrada's long out-of-print release of what I would select as his finest work, for the miniseries Son of the Morning Star). The booklet for Intrada's release of Safan's Wolfen features comments from the composer as well as a detailed look of the film's troubled production history written by, well, me. 

I have mentioned far too many times that we seem to be in a Golden Age for collectors of older scores (if not for conoisseurs of new scores), and such awesome recent releases as Intrada's complete Shadow and La-La Land's Batman: The Animated Series Vol. 2 and definitive Star Trek -- The Motion Picture inspire me to revisit (and slightly expand) my once regular "Impossible Dream Wish List" of soundtrack CD releases.

First are three scores that may indeed be impossible dreams, since it's rumored that all three are missing to one degree or another:

DAMNATION ALLEY (Jerry Goldsmith)
THE SALAMANDER (Jerry Goldsmith)
THE VALLEY  OF GWANGI (Jerome Moross)

Next are ten scores which (I hope, anyway) still exist, and which would make everyone's collection (especially mine) that much closer to nirvana--

FRENZY (Henry Mancini - rejected)
GLADIATOR (Jerry Goldsmith - rejected)
GOODBYE, LOVER (John Barry - rejected)
THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER (Jerry Goldsmith)
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (Bernard Herrmann)
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (John Barry - complete)
THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD (Jerry Goldsmith)
SEBASTIAN (Jerry Goldsmith - preferably complete)
THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (John Williams)
YEAR OF THE COMET (John Barry - rejected)

And to finish off the list, five TV projects which would find a particularly grateful home in my collection:

COLUMBO (episode scores by Billy Goldenberg)
FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY (Gil Melle)
THE RED PONY (Jerry Goldsmith)
SALEM’S LOT (Harry Sukman)
STAR TREK (unreleased episode scores, including "Elaan of Troyius" and "Friday's Child")

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Crimes of the Heart - Georges Delerue - Varese Sarabande
The Mighty Macs - William Ross - Varese Sarabande
Ruby Sparks - Nick Urata - Milan
The Shadow - Jerry Goldsmith - Intrada Special Collection
Tai-Pan - Maurice Jarre - Varese Sarabande
A Thousand Words - John Debney - Varese Sarabande
Wolfen: The Unused Score - Craig Safan - Intrada Special Collection

IN THEATERS TODAY

Killer Joe - Tyler Bates  - Score CD due July 31 on Milan
Ruby Sparks - Nick Urata - Score CD on Milan
Step Up: Revolution - Aaron Zigman - Song CD on Interscope
The Watch - Christophe Beck
The Well Digger's Daughter - Alexandre Desplat - Score CD La Fille du Puisatier on Varese Sarabande

COMING SOON

July 31
Killer Joe - Tyler Bates - Milan
August 7
The Bourne Legacy - James Newton Howard - Varese Sarabande
The Chorus - Bruno Coulais - Varese Sarabande
August 14
The Greatest Film Scores of Dimitri Tiomkin - Dimitri Tiomkin - LSO Live
ParaNorman - Jon Brion - Relativity Music
August 21
The Apparition - tomandandy - Varese Sarabande
Samsara - Michael Stearns, Lisa Gerrard, Marcello De Francisci
August 28
Lawless - Nick Cave, Warren Ellis - Sony
Date Unknown
Black Rain - Hans Zimmer - La-La Land
The Bodyguard - Alan Silvestri - La-La Land
Bora Bora - Les Baxter, Piero Piccioni - Quartet
Charmed - J. Peter Robinson - Perseverance
The Fly/Return of the Fly - Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter - Kritzerland
The Great Texas Dynamite Chase/The Great Smokey Roadblock - Craig Safan - Buysoundtrax
Green Lantern: The Animated Series - Frederik Wiedmann - La-La Land
Le Isole Dell'Amore - Piero Umiliani - Quartet
Miel de Naranjas - Nuno Malo - Quartet
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - various - La-La Land
Un Uomo a Meta - Ennio Morircone - GDM
Used Cars - Patrick Williams, Ernest Gold - La-La Land
Vilamor (Lovetown) - Zeltia Montes - Quartet
Wallander - Adam Norden - Kritzerland

THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY

July 27 - Alex North begins recording his score to The Outrage (1964)
July 27 - Jerome Moross died (1983)
July 27 - Miklos Rozsa died (1995)
July 28 - Carmen Dragon born (1914)
July 28 - Brian May born (1934)
July 28 - Richard Hartley born (1944)
July 28 - Basil Poledouris records his score for The House of God (1980)
July 28 - Laurence Rosenthal records his score for Proud Men (1987)
July 29 - Mikis Theodorakis born (1925)
July 29 - Bronislau Kaper begins recording his score for Quentin Durward (1955)
July 29 - Lee Holdridge records his score for The Explorers: A Century of Discovery (1988)
July 29 - Doug Timm died (1989)
July 30 - Antoine Duhamel born (1925)
July 30 - David Sanborn born (1945)
July 30 - Richard Band begins recording his score for Zone Troopers (1985)
July 31 - Barry De Vorzon born (1934)
July 31 - Lionel Newman begins recording his score for The Last Wagon (1956)
July 31 - Richard Band records his score for The Alchemist (1981)
July 31 - Lennie Niehaus records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Vanessa in the Garden" (1985)
August 1 - Walter Scharf born (1910)
August 1 - Jerome Moross born (1913)
August 1 - Lionel Bart born (1930)
August 1 - Paul Sawtell died (1971)
August 1 - Arthur B. Rubinstein records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Remote Control Man" (1985)
August 2 - Carlo Savina born (1919)
August 2 - Joe Harnell born (1924)
August 2 - Muir Mathieson died (1975)
August 3 - Louis Gruenberg born (1884)
August 3 - David Buttolph born (1902)
August 3 - Robert Emmett Dolan born (1906)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - Hans Zimmer

"'The Dark Knight Rises' borrows key elements from several famed comic-book storylines, most notably Knightfall, in which Bane crippled Batman in a fight, and Frank Miller’s 'The Dark Knight Returns,' in which an aging Batman was forced out of retirement, his body creaking and groaning. But the movie is ultimately less devoted to loving homage and hero worship than to completing the story that started in 2005’s 'Batman Begins.' Nolan co-opts the superhero genre: He plays by its rules and delivers some extraordinary set pieces, many of them done with old-school practical effects instead of CGI. More than an hour of the film was shot with IMAX cameras, to sensational effect, because Nolan understands showmanship and spectacle, and he uses Hans Zimmer’s rousing, restless score to exhilarating effect. Nestled inside this brooding, dark picture is a mandate to entertain."

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

"At over two hours and 40 minutes long, with repeated scenes of bone-crunching violence and a maddeningly unrelenting percussive score by Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight Rises is something of an ordeal to sit through."

Dana Stevens, Slate.com

"The director benefits not only from the recurring presence of its composers but also from its top-flight crew, with repeaters who include cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designers Nathan Crowley and Kevin Kavanaugh, editor Lee Smith and costume designer Lindy Hemming. Also returning is composer Hans Zimmer, whose increasingly insistent, percussive score (he told his orchestra, ‘I’m going to treat you as if you were a primitive drum circle’) is essential in driving the film forward."

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"Nolan’s third in the planned trilogy will likely satisfy many who fell headlong into the previous two. The new film works on your nervous system the way composer Hans Zimmer’s kettle drums of doom keeps tightening the screws, long after the screws are tight. There are many things to admire in “'The Dark Knight Rises,' and Nolan’s bombast is a far, far higher grade than you’d find in a “Transformers” movie. But nothing in the new film, which turns Gotham over to the masked terrorist Bane, played by an occasionally intelligible Tom Hardy, meets or exceeds the crises of 'The Dark Knight,' especially that picture’s ferry-boat sequence, where Gotham’s residents found themselves in a no-win situation and somehow won anyway."

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

"And as a result of the precarious layering of big philosophical notions (can the System be fixed?) over pointy little bat ears, Nolan's meticulously made, grand-scale tale caroms between a self-serious meditation on How We Live Now and an oof! pow! extended fistfight between a good guy and a bad guy, amped up by the persistent percussion of Hans Zimmer's relentless score."

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

"In addition to being terrific -- indeed crucial -- additions to the proceedings, both hail from Nolan’s most recent film, 'Inception,' which has inspired some of the most stunning visual and sonic effects of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' including a flawlessly calibrated action sequence, ending at a Gotham City football game, that Nolan stages with scale, spectacle, grandeur and even a touch of wit that has been in such short supply in previous Batman films. Relieving Hans Zimmer’s basso profundo musical score with welcome rests of muffled silence, Nolan has created a less frenetic tableau than 'The Dark Knight,' in which the chase scenes so often dissolved into incoherence."

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

"'The Dark Knight Rises' is a shallow repository of ideas, but as a work of sheer sensation, it has something to recommend it. At two hours and 45 minutes, it's no fleeter of foot than its plodding predecessors, but Nolan has continued his experimentation with the IMAX format, and the sheer mass of what he has constructed inspires a dull awe -- it is impossible not to be cowed by a film that's five stories tall while Hans Zimmer's stampeding orchestra tramples you."

Nick Pinkerton, L.A. Weekly

"Lee Smith’s editing maintins tautness and energy over the estimable running time, and Hans Zimmer add a few ivory-tickling grace notes to his magnificently brooding score, still one of the most striking and definitive elements of this altogether exemplary studio franchise."

Justin Chang, Variety

THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.

Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.

July 27
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (Henry Mancini), TWO FOR THE ROAD (Henry Mancini) [Cinematheque: Aero]
DREAMGIRLS (Stephen Trask) [AMPAS]
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Ennio Morricone) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
HOUSE OF WAX (John Ottman) [Silent Movie Theater]
OVERBOARD (Alan Silvestri) [Nuart]
REMORQUES (Roland-Manuel), THE WAGES OF FEAR (Georges Auric) [LACMA]
SADDLE THE WIND (Elmer Bernstein) [UCLA]
SNOOPY COME HOME (Don Ralke, Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman), HOLLYWOOD OR BUST (Walter Scharf) [New Beverly]

July 28
THE DARK CRYSTAL (Trevor Jones) [AMPAS]
THE GODFATHER PART II (Nino Rota. Carmine Coppola) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE MERCENARY (Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai), DEATH RIDES A HORSE (Ennio Morricone) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
SNOOPY COME HOME (Don Ralke, Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman), HOLLYWOOD OR BUST (Walter Scharf) [New Beverly]

July 29
BILLY JACK (Mundell Lowe), DEATH WISH (Herbie Hancock) [New Beverly]
THE MAN FROM THE ALAMO (Frank Skinner) [UCLA]
SABATA (Marcello Giombini), IF YOU MEET SARTANA, PRAY FOR DEATH (Piero Piccioni) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (Elmer Bernstein) [Cinematheque: Aero]

July 30
BILLY JACK (Mundell Lowe), DEATH WISH (Herbie Hancock) [New Beverly]
THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Richard Rodgers, Irwin Kostal) [AMPAS]

July 31
BONJOUR TRISTESSE (Georges Auric) [LACMA]
PSYCHOMANIA (John Cameron), THE WITCHMAKER (Jaime Mendoza-Nova) [New Beverly]

August 1
BEGGARS OF LIFE [Silent Movie Theater]
FEAR IS THE KEY (Roy Budd), MAN IN THE WILDERNESS (Johnny Harris) [New Beverly]
THE RED SHOES (Brian Easdale) [Cinematheque: Aero]

August 2
CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37 (Pino Donaggio), THE SHOOTING (Richard Markowitz) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
FEAR IS THE KEY (Roy Budd), MAN IN THE WILDERNESS (Johnny Harris) [New Beverly]
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (George Duning, Morris Stoloff), LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING (Alfred Newman) [Cinematheque: Aero]

August 3
BOLT (John Powell) [LACMA]
DRIVE (Cliff Martinez) [Nuart]
A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (Ennio Morricone), FOR  A FEW DOLLARS MORE (Ennio Morricone) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE GETAWAY (Quincy Jones), MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (Leonard Cohen) [New Beverly]
JOYSTICKS [Silent Movie Theater]
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Bernard Herrmann) [AMPAS]
THE SHINING (Wendy Carlos, Rachel Elkind) [Cinematheque: Aero]

August 4
THE GETAWAY (Quincy Jones), MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (Leonard Cohen) [New Beverly]
KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM DIE (Mario Nascimbene) [New Beverly]
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (Ennio Morricone) [Cinematheque: Aero]
STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. [AMPAS]

August 5
THE GREAT SILENCE (Ennio Morricone), A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (Luis Bacalov, Ennio Morricone) [Cinematheque: Aero]
RIVER OF NO RETURN (Cyril Mockridge) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE WIZARD OF OZ (Harold Arlen, Herbert Stothart) [Cinematheque: Aero]