Upcoming Movies and their Composers

by Lukas Kendall

Most of the following news will be familiar to readers of Film Score Monthly (go here for more information) but I hope newcomers find it a fresh dose of information to see which of their favorite composers are doing which upcoming movies. And there are some updates for regular subscribers, as well as lengthier comments than space permits in FSM...

The next issue of FSM (May 1997, Vol. 2, No. 3) is now printing and will ship on Monday, May 5th. It features interviews with Michael Fine and Patrick Russ on the new Double Indemnity/Miklós Rózsa recording, and a ton of reviews to get us back up to date—Poltergeist, Rosewood, Mars Attacks! and more. Unlike most CD reviews on the Internet, our comments are worth reading because we will observe things that will be interesting to you.

To 90% of the film composers out there, I wish you Good Pesach.

Upcoming Movies and Their Composers

DAVID ARNOLD: Yes, Arnold scores Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond 18, now shooting all over the globe. The album he prepared of covers of the James Bond title songs helped him secure the gig—I don't know when that CD will be out, but fall is a good bet. Arnold also scores A Life Less Ordinary for Danny Boyle and will tackle Godzilla for ID4 team Emmerich and Devlin next year.

JOHN BARRY: Barry has completed work on Amy Foster, recorded in London, an English epic right up his alley. His next project is The Horse Whisperer for Robert Redford.

MARCO BELTRAMI: Beltrami got lucky with a hit (Scream) as his first feature. His all-important second picture is Mimic.

ELMER BERNSTEIN: It's a goofy gorilla movie for the legendary Elmer Bernstein, Caroline Thompson's Buddy, as well as a gangster score for MGM's Hoodlum which is supposed to kick.

CARTER BURWELL: Picture Perfect for Fox, Big Lebowski for the Coen Bros., and Conspiracy Theory (Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts) for Richard Donner, who evidently makes a point never to use a composer more than once (except on a Lethal Weapon sequel).

GEORGE CLINTON: Austin Powers, as well as The Last Days of Frankie the Fly (Dennis Hopper) and Mortal Kombat 2. By the way, this is not the George Clinton from P-Funk.

PATRICK DOYLE: Great Expectations, from the director of Little Princess, Alfonso Cuaron. By the way, I met Doyle and he is absolutely the sweetest man in the world, as well as a talented composer and dramatist; if you're trying to visualize what he looks like, he's like a five-foot-four Brent Spiner with gray hair and a Scottish brogue.

CLIFF EIDELMAN: Free Willy 3. I hate all music for animal movies, I've decided.

DANNY ELFMAN: Men in Black is complete and has some of Elfman's usual, cool antics with a Herrmannesque bent and retro sixties, spy-bass-line type theme for the "Men." (Elfman scored the latter half of the trailer, after the opening music which was from Demolition Man.) Elfman plans to take some time away from film scoring to work on scripts. Although no announcement has been made, it's a reasonable assumption that he will score Superman Lives if Tim Burton does indeed direct.

JOHN FRIZZELL: How to crack the A-list of film composers: be James Newton Howard's synth programmer. That got him Dante's Peak, but reportedly his own style impressed director Jeunet to get the coveted Alien Resurrection gig. He's writing now. Frizzell had one of the best lines about scoring the Beavis and Butt- Head movie: "People asked me what I learned doing this movie. I think I got dumber."

NICK GLENNIE-SMITH: Home Alone 3 and Fire Down Below, the latest from Steven Seagal.

ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL: Batman and Robin, and Butcher Boy for Neil Jordan. This new Batman movie looks like Ninja Turtles.

JERRY GOLDSMITH: L.A. Confidential for Curtis Hanson—this takes place in the '30s but the score is more City Hall than Chinatown, with a small group of strings, one trumpet, French horns, timpani and percussion, vibes, two pianos and DX-7. Also the undersea movie Deep Rising, the Anthony Hopkins mystery Bookworm (another reported standing ovation from the orchestra—they love playing for Jerry), and the upcoming Lost in Space movie for Stephen Hopkins now shooting in England (John Williams passed).

JOEL GOLDSMITH: Jerry's son, who scored around 20 minutes of Star Trek First Contact due to a scheduling crunch, does solo duty on Kull the Conquerer for Universal. Kull: what three things are good in life? Planet of the Apes music, Poltergeist music, and Capricorn One music. When Joel Goldsmith is 80 years old, people will still refer to him as, "Joel Goldsmith, Jerry Goldsmith's son."

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD: the imminent Father's Day (Robin Williams, Billy Crystal), My Best Friend's Wedding (Julia Roberts—the trailer is beat-by-beat the film), and The Postman, Kevin Costner's upcoming epic. Costner reportedly dug Howard's work on Wyatt Earp and Waterworld.

JAMES HORNER: Titanic for James Cameron, soundtrack album on Sony Classical June 17th. Yes, Horner had a miserable experience on Aliens over ten years ago, but reportedly he considered this movie the film he was born to score, and kissed and made up with the director. The crew on this movie have asked Cameron for July 4th off, so they can go to see the film.

MARK ISHAM: Night Falls on Manhattan for Sidney Lumet, Afterglow (Nick Nolte), and Face Off for John Woo.

MAURICE JARRE: A French film I know nothing about called Le Jour et la Nuit.

TREVOR JONES: In Pursuit of Honor (Ridley Scott)—this has been in the can for a while—and the upcoming Desperate Measures (d. Barbet Schroder, Michael Keaton is bad guy, Die Hard in a hospital) and Dark City (d. Alex Proyas).

JOHN LURIE: Excess Baggage with Alicia Silverstone.

MARK MANCINA: Speed 2: Cruise Control (Jan De Bont) and Con Air (co-composed with Trevor Rabin, Nicholas Cage, Die Hard on an airline disaster with convicts and shit blowing up).

ENNIO MORRICONE: Adrian Lyne's Lolita, which has been done for a while, and Oliver Stone's next film, U-Turn.

DAVID NEWMAN: Out to Sea (Matthau/Lemmon), and Quest for Camelot.

RANDY NEWMAN: Air Force One, Harrison Ford as the president on an airline disaster with Die Hard and shit blowing up and a money shot of Ford clonking somebody with a chair. I cannot wait to hear this score... Newman has never done an action film, or anything remotely like this (Maverick, I guess). As someone put it, he never did The Natural, prior to The Natural, he never die Avalon prior to Avalon, and so forth. Inspired choice.

THOMAS NEWMAN: Mad City. Have no idea what this is.

MICHAEL NYMAN: Gattaca, the sci-fi Brave New World/Logan's Run type movie with cloning.

JOHN OTTMAN: Incognito for John Badham, and The Apt Pupil for Bryan Singer—Ottman will edit and compose this picture, as on The Usual Suspects.

BASIL POLEDOURIS: Going West in America (d. Jeb Stuart) is done, and Poledouris has spent the last month or so starting Starship Troopers for Paul Verhoeven, with whom he did Flesh+Blood and Robocop. Basil, what things are good in life? Working for a real director; having actual time to compose a score; having a promising, interesting, balls-to-the-wall film like Starship Troopers (due late in the year).

GRAEME REVELL: Spawn. Shirley Walker scores the HBO animated version, by the way.

LALO SCHIFRIN: Schifrin has revisted his awesome '70s funky style for Money Talks, a New Line action-comedy starring Chris Tucker and Charlie Sheen. The all-time favorite score of the director, Brett Ratner, is Enter the Dragon, so he hired Lalo for that style—and he did it! They recorded it at Warner Bros.—the same stage he did Bullitt, Enter the Dragon and Dirty Harry on—and it sounds exactly like something Schifrin would have written in 1971. It's totally dope. The movie is out July 18th.

ERIC SERRA: The Fifth Element, out next weekend I believe. I was the first to cry bloody murder over GoldenEye, but I'll also be the first to say that Eric Serra is great for Luc Besson, and I'm looking forward to this film. Serra has also been incredibly influential: I think when the '90s are over, people will look back and realize the most influential composers have been Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, Elliot Goldenthal and Eric Serra.

MARC SHAIMAN: In and Out, and George of the Jungle. Look out for that tree.

HOWARD SHORE: The Game for Seven director David Fincher.

ALAN SILVESTRI: Current project is Contact for Robert Zemeckis. After that is Tarzan, the animated movie. Look out for that tree.

MICHAEL TAVERA: Mr. Magoo (Leslie Nielsen) and Rocket Man (Disney).

JOHN WILLIAMS: The Lost World is done, and is reportedly more atonal than anything Williams has written for a while. Next film-wise is Seven Years in Tibet (Brad Pitt), and Amistad for Steven Spielberg. And yes, Williams will be doing the next Star Wars films.

CHRISTOPHER YOUNG: Watch That Man (Bill Murray spy spoof), The Flood (now moved to fall and being retitled to be more of a dramatic chase movie, not a disaster movie), and Kilronin (Jessica Lange stalks Gwyneth Paltrow, which might have another title as well—how about This Movie Is So 1993.)

HANS ZIMMER: Prince of Egypt (Dreamworks' first animated musical, reteaming Zimmer with animation Kleezansun Jeffrey Katzenberg) and Dreamworks' The Peacemaker (George Clooney, Nicole Kidman).

Want to know the composer for an upcoming movie? Send me the title. Also, any corrections or updates to the above would be dearly appreciated.

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