The latest CD from Intrada, limited to 500 units, is the first-ever release of the score for the 1988 ensemble family drama ROCKET GIBRALTAR, starring Burt Lancaster, Suzy Amis, Patricia Clarkson, Francis Conroy, Sinead Cusack, John Glover, Bill Pullman, Kevin Spacey, and Macaulay Culkin in his film debut. The score was only one of two (so far) composed by Andrew Powell, best known for his cult favorite symphonic pop score for Richard Donner's Ladyhawke.
In some of the most promising film music news in recent memory, Universal has announced what Jon Burlingame's Variety article calls "a long-range plan to preserve and restore its unreleased movie music." Fortunately for collectors, this plan, officially titled the Universal Pictures Film Music Heritage Collection, involves releasing some of these preserved/restored scores on CD in partnership with La-La Land, beginning this week with a 3000-unit edition of Michel Colombier's offbeat, previously unavailable score to the excellent 1970 sci-fi thriller COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT. Other scores which are being preserved with a probable CD release in mind include The Prisoner of Zenda (Henry Mancini, and currently expected in August), Two Mules for Sister Sara (Ennio Morricone), Airport '77 (John Cacavas), The Concorde: Airport '79 (Lalo Schifrin), Fletch Lives (Harold Faltermeyer) and The Sentinel (Gil Melle). Mike Matessino will be producing the first albums in this series, and execs have mentioned the possibility that Universal's TV scores will also be included in this project. The label hopes to have three CDs in this series out by the end of the year, with approximately one every two months from then on. Though the current projects listed cover just the 1970s and 80s, the label also hopes to do scores from earlier and later decades as well. (at the end of this column, I have included a list* of most of the Universal feature scores from the 70s and 80s that have not received substantial commercial releases, to give you a sense of just some of the possible projects in the future -- though some of these films were only distributed by Universal, not produced by them, and thus might not be eligible).
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced their list of 928 actors, filmmakers and publicists who have been invited to join the Academy, including the following Music Branch invitees -- composers Jeff Beal, Lisa Coleman, Fil Eisler, Sharon Farber, Osvaldo Golijov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hauschka, Mandy Hoffman, Yoko Kanno, Emilio Kauderer, Usha Khanna, Shena Khanwalkar Joseph Koo, Lee Byung-Woo, Lim Giong, Wendy Melvoin, Jason Moran, Trevor Morris, Dustin O’Halloran, Daniel Pemberton, Jeff Rona, Nitin Sawhney, Ilona Sekacz, Eric Serra, Gingger Shankar, Carlo Siliotto, Rob Simonsen and Nathan Wang; music editors Joe Bonn, Stephanie Lowry, Jen Monnar, Melissa Muik, Steven A. Saltzman and Jeanette Surga; and songwriters Carlinhos Brown, Ester Dean, Melissa Etheridge, Kendrick Lamar, Carlton Douglas “Chuck D” Ridenhour, Sufjan Stevens, and Ahmir Khalib “Questlove” Thompson.
I am currently on vacation, so if any additional film music news broke in the last few days, you will have to learn it from our Message Board, or from the deepest and dankest recesses of the Intertubes, but not from the "dark web," which we now know is a dangerous and scary place.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Annihiliation - Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow - Lakeshore
Colossus: The Forbin Project - Michel Colombier - La-La Land
Fahrenheit 451 - Matteo Zingales, Antony Partos - Milan
Incredibles 2 - Michael Giacchino - Disney
The Man with One Red Shoe - Thomas Newman - La-La Land
Rocket Gibraltar - Andrew Powell - Intrada Special Collection
Sicario: Day of the Soldado - Hildur Gudnadottir - Varese Sarabande
IN THEATERS TODAY
The Cakemaker - Dominique Charpentier
Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf - Charles Gansa, David Thor Jonsson
Hover - Wojciech Golczewski
The King - Robert Miller, Antony Genn, Martin Slattery
Leave No Trace - Dickon Hinchliffe
Love All You Have Left - Steve Garbade
Sicario: Day of the Soldado - Hildur Guðnadóttir - Score CD on Varese Sarabande
This Is Congo - Johnny Klimek, Gabriel Mounsey
Three Identical Strangers - Paul Saunderson
Uncle Drew - Christopher Lennertz - Song CD on RCA
Woman Walks Ahead - George Fenton
COMING SOON
July 6
Gotti - Pitbull, Jorge Gomez - Sony (import)
Hotel Transylvania: Score for the Motion Pictures - Mark Mothersbaugh - Sony (import)
Humans: Seasons 2 & 3 - Susan Warner - Silva
July 13
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot - Danny Elfman - Sony
Shock and Awe - Jeff Beal - Varese Sarabande
July 20
1922 - Mike Patton - Ipecac (import)
Teacup Travels - Rasmus Borowski, Alexius Tschallener - Tadlow
July 27
Mosaic - David Holmes - Touch Sensitive (import)
August 3
Skyscraper - Steve Jablonsky - Milan
Date Unknown
Advise and Consent - Jerry Fielding - Kritzerland
Edie - Debbie Wiseman - Silva
Les B.O. Introuvables - Jacques Dutronc, Christian Dorisse, Alain Goraguer, Lino Leonardi, Raymond Lefevre, Francois Rauber - Music Box
Mission: Impossible - Fallout - Lorne Balfe - La-La Land
The Prisoner of Zenda - Henry Mancini - La-La Land
Two North(s) & A Little Part of Anywhere - Pascal Gaigne - Quartet
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
June 29 - Joseph Carl Breil born (1870)
June 29 - Bernard Herrmann born (1911)
June 29 - Ulpio Minucci born (1917)
June 29 - Ralph Burns born (1922)
June 29 - Daniele Amfitheatrof begins recording his score for The Painted Hills (1950)
June 29 - Richard Markowitz’s score for The Wild Wild West episode “The Night of the Infernal Machine” is recorded (1966)
June 29 - Mischa Spoliansky died (1985)
June 29 - Bert Shefter died (1999)
June 30 - Tony Hatch born (1939)
June 30 - Stanley Clarke born (1951)
June 30 - Hal Lindes born (1953)
June 30 - Guenther Kauer died (1983)
June 30 - Craig Safan begins recording his score for the Amazing Stories episode "The Wedding Ring" (1986)
June 30 - Basil Poledouris begins recording his score for Flight of the Intruder (1990)
June 30 - Dennis McCarthy records his score for the Star Trek: Voyager episode “The 37’s” (1995)
July 1 - Sigmund Krumgold born (1896)
July 1 - Hans Werner Henze born (1926)
July 1 - Andrae Crouch born (1942)
July 1 - Francois Dompierre born (1943)
July 1 - Alfred Newman begins recording his score for The Robe (1953)
July 1 - Roddy Bottum born (1963)
July 1 - Seamus Egan born (1969)
July 2 - Jeff Alexander born (1910)
July 2 - Fabio Frizzi born (1951)
July 2 - Frederic Talgorn born (1961)
July 2 - Kristian Eidnes Andersen born (1966)
July 2 - Nathan Van Cleave died (1970)
July 2 - Richard Band begins recording his score for From Beyond (1986)
July 3 - George Bruns born (1914)
July 3 - Jean Prodromides born (1927)
July 3 - Robert O. Ragland born (1931)
July 3 - David Shire born (1937)
July 3 - Peer Raben born (1940)
July 3 - Michel Polnareff born (1944)
July 3 - Delia Derbyshire died (2001)
July 4 - Fred Wesley born (1943)
July 4 - Larry Herbstritt born (1950)
July 4 - Nathan Furst born (1978)
July 4 - Astor Piazzolla died (1992)
July 4 - Benedetto Ghiglia died (2012)
July 5 - Robbie Robertson born (1943)
July 5 - Robert J. Kral born (1967)
July 5 - Jerry Fielding's score for the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun" is recorded (1968)
July 5 - RZA born as Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (1969)
July 5 - David Ferguson died (2009)
July 5 - David Fanshawe died (2010)
July 5 - Fonce Mizell died (2011)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
GENIUS - Adam Cork
"Really, your mileage will vary on 'Genius,' depending on where you place Law’s performance on the irritating/entertaining spectrum and your tolerance for somewhat formulaic tales of creative ego and 'The Price of Fame.' All other credentials are present and correct: DP Ben Davis who also shot, er, 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' does a nice job of keeping the period visuals stately but not inert, and even manages to film 'people writing' or 'people talking about writing' in a fairly dynamic manner. The costumes, outside of that annoying hat, are unshowily period-accurate. The music from Adam Cork is forgettably nice."
Jessica Kiang, IndieWire
"Even when 'Genius' stumbles upon something dramatically chewy, it can't seem to resist the temptation to self-destructively deep-six its grace notes. Fretting over a long descriptive passage of Wolfe's second novel 'Of Time and the River,' the author and Perkins argue over what should stay and what needs to go. One thinks every verb matters; the other wants a simpler, cleaner prose. Firth and Law finally lock into a rhythm, a give-and-take sense of tension and negotiation builds, and for once, the film captures the fine art of kill-your-darlings massacring that is editing. Then Law screams in 'I looove you, Max Perkins!' in a caricaturish North Carolina drawl as his friend's train pulls away, and out come the strings on the score. This is a movie allegedly dedicated to finding the genius buried beneath indulgent clutter. Physician, heal thyself."
David Fear, Rolling Stone
"For this particular storytelling approach to work, however, audiences must also find themselves seduced by the figures in question -- a tall order in a movie that’s overwritten, over-scored and wildly overacted by thesps who should all know better. In scenes that effectively seem to have been marinated in music, Law bellows and gesticulates like a barn-raised carnival barker, braying his lines from memory, rather than from the marrow of the tortured poet he’s playing. Though there’s altogether too much of it, Logan has written some splendid dialogue, trying to channel the voice of a writer who couldn’t stop the words from flowing. Pity, then, that most of the time, you just want Wolfe to shut up."
Peter Debruge, Variety
"The director's other strenuous bid to inject energy into the material is by plastering every scene with music, the recourse of many an anxious filmmaker. Adam Cork is a theater composer who has worked frequently with Grandage (including on a 'Hamlet' that starred Law), and his score is almost manic in its efforts to jazz up -- literally, since we're in the 1920s and '30s -- repetitive scenes depicting the two men hard at work. Max's realization that something extraordinary has landed on his desk after being rejected by every publisher in town is accompanied by Law reading huge dollops of Proustian prose in voiceover while Firth intensifies his focus on the pages and Cork's music swells. But the scenes have less life than a lot of audiobooks."
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
THE TICKET - Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
"The film's opening pulls us right into the protagonist's perspective: We hear whispered snippets of pillow talk between James (Stevens) and his wife, Sam ('Billions' star Malin Akerman, underplaying beautifully), but see only blurry shapes and white spots floating across a black screen. Soon thereafter, James awakens to find his vision has returned. A trip to the doctor reveals that the inoperable pituitary tumor that had been pressing on his optic nerves since he was a teenager has miraculously shrunk. These early scenes are some of 'The Ticket''s most promising, enhanced by a playful, vaguely creepy piano score (by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans) that helps set a tone of gentle foreboding."
Jon Frosch, Hollywood Reporter
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, Arclight, LACMA, Laemmle, New Beverly, Nuart and UCLA.
June 29
BARBARELLA (Charles Fox, Bob Crewe) [Nuart]
BLACK MAGIC 2 (Chen Yung Yu), HUMAN LANTERNS (Chin Yung Shing, Chen-Hou Su), THE BOXER'S OMEN (Chin Yung Shing, Chen-Hou Su) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
NOW, VOYAGER (Max Steiner), OLD ACQUAINTANCE (Franz Waxman) [UCLA]
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (Jack Nitzsche) [Cinematheque: Aero]
June 30
CRIPPLED AVENGERS (Chen Yung Yu), MASKED AVENGERS (Chu-Jen Wang) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT (Thomas Newman) [Cinematheque: Aero]
July 1
HAIR (Galt MacDermott, Thomas Pierson), TAKING OFF [Cinematheque: Aero]
JAWS (John Williams) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
July 3
THE SECRET OF NIMH (Jerry Goldsmith) [LACMA]
July 5
GLORY (James Horner) [Laemmle NoHo]
THE NATURAL (Randy Newman), STAND BY ME (Jack Nitzsche) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE SHINING (Wendy Carlos, Rachel Elkind) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
July 6
INCEPTION (Hans Zimmer) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (Leonard Rosenman), THE OUTSIDERS (Carmine Coppola) [Cinematheque: Aero]
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (Nigel Godrich) [Nuart]
SO THIS IS PARIS [UCLA]
July 7
BACK TO THE FUTURE (Alan Silvestri), BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II (Alan Silvestri), BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (Alan Silvestri) [Cinematheque: Aero]
DARK CITY (Trevor Jones), CUBE (Mark Korven) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
NINOTCHKA (Werner R. Heymann), THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (Werner R. Heymann) [UCLA]
July 8
AMERICAN GRAFFITI, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (John Barry) [Cinematheque: Aero]
LABYRINTH (Trevor Jones), PAN'S LABYRINTH (Javier Navarrete) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
*Films released by Universal in the 1970s and 1980s that have not had substantial commercial score releases:
All Night Long – Richard Hazard, Ira Newborn
All of Me - Patrick Williams
Barbarosa – Bruce Smeaton
The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones – Ron Grainer
The Beguiled – Lalo Schifrin
The Best of Times – Arthur B. Rubinstein
Beyond the Reef – Francis Lai
The Big Fix – Bill Conti
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf – Ted Stovall
Brewster’s Millions – Ry Cooder
The Brinks Job – Richard Rodney Bennett
Casual Sex? – Van Dyke Parks
Cattle Annie and Little Britches – Sahn Berti, Tom Slocum (unused score by Alex North)
Charley Varrick – Lalo Schifrin
Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County – Lyn Murray
Continental Divide – Michael Small
Crackers – Paul Chihara
Creator – Sylvester Levay
Cross My Heart – Bruce Broughton
The Day of the Jackal – Georges Delerue
Death Valley – Dana Kaproff
Doctor Detroit – Lalo Schifrin
The Don Is Dead – Jerry Goldsmith
The Dream Team – David McHugh
Fast Charlie…the Moonbeam Rider – Stu Phillips
Frenzy – Ron Goodwin (unused score by Henry Mancini)
The Front Page – Billy May
The Girl from Petrovka – Henry Mancini
Going Berserk – Tom Scott
Gotcha – Bill Conti
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid – Dave Grusin
The Great Outdoors – Thomas Newman
The Greek Tycoon - Stanley Meyers
The Groundstar Conspiracy – Paul Hoffert
House Calls – Henry Mancini
How to Frame a Figg – Vic Mizzy
I Love My Wife – Lalo Schifrin
In God We Trust – John Morris
In Search of Gregory – Ron Grainer
The Incredible Shrinking Woman – Suzanne Ciani
Into the Night – Ira Newborn
The Jerk – Jack Elliott
K-9 – Miles Goodman
The Last Married Couple in America – Charles Fox
The Last Remake of Beau Geste – John Morris
Limbo – Anita Kerr
Little Miss Marker – Henry Mancini
A Little Sex – Georges Delerue
The Lonely Guy – Jerry Goldsmith
Mass Appeal – Bill Conti
Melvin and Howard – Bruce Langhorne
The Midnight Man – Dave Grusin
The Milagro Beanfield War – Dave Grusin
Missing – Vangelis
Moment by Moment – Lee Holdridge
The Money Pit - Michel Colombier
Mustang Country – Lee Holdridge
National Lampoon's Animal House – Elmer Bernstein
The Nelson Affair – Michel Legrand
Newman’s Law – Robert Prince
‘Night, Mother – David Shire
Nightmares – Craig Safan
The Nude Bomb – Lalo Schifrin
One More Train to Rob – David Shire
Play Misty for Me – Dee Barton
The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper – James Horner
Puzzle of a Downfall Child – Michael Small
Raid on Rommel – Hal Mooney
Resurrection – Maurice Jarre
Rooster Cogburn – Laurence Rosenthal
Same Time, Next Year – Marvin Hamlisch
Scarface – Giorgio Moroder
The Seduction of Joe Tynan – Bill Conti (unused score by Michael Small)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution – John Addison
Shakedown – Jonathan Elias
Shoot Out – Dave Grusin
Showdown – David Shire
Six Weeks – Dudley Moore
Skullduggery – Oliver Nelson
Sssssss – Patrick Williams
Stick – Joseph Conlan, Barry DeVorzon
Story of a Woman – John Williams
Streets of Fire – Ry Cooder (unused original cues by James Horner)
The Sugarland Express – John Williams
Sweet Liberty – Bruce Broughton
Tank – Lalo Schifrin
That Man Bolt – Charles Bernstein
They Might Be Giants – John Barry
Twins – Georges Delerue, Randy Edelman
Two-Minute Warning – Charles Fox
Two People – David Shire
Ulzana’s Raid – Frank DeVol
Uncle Buck – Ira Newborn
The Wizard – J. Peter Robinson
You’ll Like My Mother – Gil Melle
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