Max Richter and Lorne Balfe. Pretty interesting combo. Hope it turns out as well as GHOST IN THE SHELL (Mansell's material was better, but Balfe's was pretty good too).
The constant Balfe (and JXL) bashing here at FSM is as tired now as the Horner plagiarism issue. In other words, it rolls off like water on a duck (did I get it right this time, Tall Guy?).
It rather seems to me that people are just dismissing his name outright, without even giving the stuff a chance -- probably because of a few genre scores he did that didn't appeal to their conservative tastes. It's like a bunch of bullies picking on a kid without really knowing why. Pathetic, really.
But at least JXL hasn't gone around laughing scornfully at more talented composers, for bothering to learn structure and counterpoint and...and...even basic musical terms. Yes, he's grabbing some big gigs, but his attitude screams 'hack' to me.
He's not one of my personal favourites, but he's done far too much good stuff to be a 'hack'. However, I'm all curious to read that interview you talk about now.
However, in the test screening I attended last summer, its temp music do has a lot Interstellar in it.
Knowing that, for me the story is clear...
The temp music used was Interstellar, but Thomas Newman is not going to copy Zimmer (specially after so many years of career and having one of the most recognizable styles in the history of cinema). Newman out, they call a minimalist with the closest composing style (listen to some of his "Sleep" tracks) to Interstellar's minimalism: Richter. The producers don't get the Zimmer style they want, especially the action cues perhaps due to lack of experience...? Then they call the zimmer clone. The end.
I'm imagining screening a cut of the film for focus groups who fill out their cards with "What this film really needed was action music that sounds like every other score released in 2019."
Having James Gray write and direct an expensive sci-fi thriller already sounded like a chancy proposition, and getting a composer as offbeat as Max Richter was especially unexpected, so the Balfe-ing seems like the most predictable development of all.
What makes this all disappointing is that the film is produced by Brad Pitt's company, whose other films include 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight, so it would have been nice to imagine someone there sticking to their guns, as it were.
I'm imagining screening a cut of the film for focus groups who fill out their cards with "What this film really needed was action music that sounds like every other score released in 2019."
My takeaway would be that the director's commitment to "the most realistic depiction of space travel that's been put in a movie" coupled with a Richter score that likely didn't play up the melodrama was received as dull and boring.
Which is akin to David Gerrold (I think it was Gerrold) having opined once that the cloud sequence in ST:TMP should have been scored up-tempo. Because, like ya know, there are only two dramaturgical approaches to science fiction: Action and MORE Action (or, as in a particular case like Zimmer's Interstellar, a third, sensorial approach: Loud, LOUDER and LOUDER—ER—ER—ER).
However, in the test screening I attended last summer, its temp music do has a lot Interstellar in it.
Knowing that, for me the story is clear...
The temp music used was Interstellar, but Thomas Newman is not going to copy Zimmer (specially after so many years of career and having one of the most recognizable styles in the history of cinema). Newman out, they call a minimalist with the closest composing style (listen to some of his "Sleep" tracks) to Interstellar's minimalism: Richter. The producers don't get the Zimmer style they want, especially the action cues perhaps due to lack of experience...? Then they call the zimmer clone. The end.
