In Contention

Tag: Hans Zimmer

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Music (Original Score)

    (from left) Wally Wolodarsky (voice) and George Clooney (voice) in Fantastic Mr. FoxFor years the composers of the music branch tended to be a bit insular. Impressive newcomer talent was often ignored while the usual suspects showed up year after year. Not long ago, there seemed to be a shift, yielding slates much like the one we have for 2009.

    There is one first-timer, but other nominees are only enjoying their second and third nominations, while the true veterans of the category haven’t been to the dance in six and nine years respectively. Usually the Academy at large springs for a Best Picture nominee with overwhelming consistency, most often films with cultural flavor or dramatic, sometimes whimsical heft.

    The nominees are:

    “Avatar” (James Horner)
    “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (Alexandre Desplat)
    “The Hurt Locker” (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)
    “Sherlock Holmes” (Hans Zimmer)
    “Up” (Michael Giacchino)

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  • Hans Zimmer’s ‘Discombobulate’ music video

    Earlier today we featured an interview with “Sherlock Holmes” composer Hans Zimmer, the first of a two-part piece on the nominated composers of 2009.  This music video just crossed my bow, I found it novel enough — thought I’d share:

  • TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: Composer symposium, part one

    Hans ZimmerWhen you’re a film music composer as prolific as Hans Zimmer, unique soundtrack flavors can be a bit elusive. But with Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes,” Zimmer found them, pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable with action film scores in the process.

    But the work isn’t without its inspirations. There seem to be bits of Danny Elfman married with Ennio Morricone, but Zimmer was actually reaching back much further.

    “Let me just be German about it,” Zimmer says with a laugh. “It was actually the Kurt Weill vibe I was after. But it’s sort of all in the family, I suppose. It’s fun for me if I can actually go and embrace some of that European stuff again.”

    The score is a delightful, jaunty construction that relishes in its own peculiarity. The good thing about director Ritchie, Zimmer says, is that he’s a bold director who welcomed these slightly “quirky” and “crazy” intrusions.

    “There was an enormous amount of thinking about how to do this differently,” Zimmer recalls. “It became apparent quickly that Guy and I had similar tastes in music and, in a funny way, what hadn’t been done in a movie of this scale. It’s all soloists. It’s not really orchestral. Every note you hear has a real performance attached to it. You can’t really hide it. Everything is very opinionated and bold. It’s not the sort of homogeneous sound you get from an orchestra.”

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Avatar’ awe, ‘Bones’ defense, original songs

    Avatar• A little movie called “Avatar” premiered. This week’s Oscar Talk tucked into the film.

    • As “The Lovely Bones” faces a frosty critical welcome, this week’s Off the Carpet column went to bat for the film.

    • We interviewed a quartet of young actors making strides this year: Abbie Cornish, Saoirse Ronan, Ben Foster and Bryce Dallas Howard.

    • In The Long Shot, we examined the animation race — and stood up for under-the-radar contender “Mary & Max.”

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  • Danny Elfman meets Ennio Morricone

    Hans ZimmerThat’s what I’ve decided the Hans Zimmer score for “Sherlock Holmes” is.  I’ve been listening to it all weekend.  The themes present in that brief snippet we led off yesterday’s Oscar Talk are felt throughout in different ways, but mostly I keep getting a spaghetti western homage.  Specifically, the mandolin picking of Morricone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West” score gets a bold tip of the hat, mixed with a jaunty rhythm that just puts a smile on your face.

    I know when I brought this up last week a number of people thumbed their nose at Zimmer, and that’s fine.  I get the animosity to an extent.  But even with the homages, this is a pretty substantial, creative piece of work, in my book.  And I can’t be pegged as being in the tank for bombast because my favorite score of the year is probably still Mark Bradshaw’s subtle work on “Bright Star.”

    I thought I’d offer up the first track on the “Holmes” score, a bit called “Discombobulate.”  Have a listen and tell us what you think:

    [audio:http://www.incontention.com/audio/discombobulate.mp3]

  • Is Hans Zimmer someone to watch for ‘Sherlock Holmes?’

    (from left) Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock HolmesI’ve been hearing from vested interests for a long time now that Hans Zimmer’s score for Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” is something quite extraordinary.  I haven’t paid a lot of mind because it’s all jockeying for position and putting your best foot forward this time of year, etc.

    But the chatter is getting louder lately as more and more people see the film in-house.  It’s the one element that keeps being brought up and I have to wonder if there might be something to this.

    I have no idea what to expect.  Frankly I would have assumed something fairly standard for a film like this, but truly, Zimmer has been doing great work even in films that missed on nearly every other level (like, say, “The Da Vinci Code”).  He’s a seven-time nominee after all, despite his flirtations with action-oriented entertainments.  So it’s fair to assume we may be in for a pleasant surprise.

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  • Keeping score

    By now, “Watchmen” has been assessed and widely shat on from a large array of angles, but one voice I didn’t necessarily expect to pipe in was that of classical music critic Tom Service. Writing for the Guardian, Service praises the film’s “carefully conceived” use of existing music, particularly the heavily intertextual use of Wagner, though he complains:

    A shame, then, that they go for the easy option of Mozart’s Requiem, in a poorly edited version, near the end of Watchmen, after the pseudo-apocalypse that wipes out Manhattan. Surely a bit of 80s electro would have made the point better, and saved Mozart from becoming yet more of a morbid musical cliche?

    Against such familiar themes, however, Service is distinctly unimpressed by Tyler Bates’ original score for the film, and uses this as a springboard for a broader lament on the state of Hollywood scores in general. He claims composers have recently “trodden the path of the generic or the frankly redundant” — with Jonny Greenwood’s extraordinary work on “There Will Be Blood” the last notable exception.

    I tend to agree with him, having found 2008 a particularly weak year for film scores in general. But we part ways when Service chooses to single out for criticism one of the few scores that actually got under my skin (and onto my iTunes) last year:

    Anyone remember “The Dark Knight’s” score? Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s music, I thought, got mired in a single idea, an obsessively repeated minor third, that gloomy interval of impending doom, but could not generate any real tension or dramatic counterpoint with the onscreen action. It’s a pity, given the complexity of drama and ideas in both films (“Knight” and “Watchmen”), that the music didn’t add to the experience.

    To each their own, I guess.

  • THE LISTS: Top 10 pet peeves of the 2008-2009 Oscar season

    Rachel Getting Married

    The season is winding down this week.  The slow President’s Day holiday yesterday seemed to be more of a harbinger than a lull in the excitement.  This time next week, we’ll probably be over the fallout of the circuit and on to debating the contenders we’re likely to see a year from now.

    It’s a vicious, beautiful, sad, interesting circle.

    But before the 81st Annual Academy Awards telecast puts a bow on the festivities Sunday night, it seems a decent enough time to reflect.  And not to be too negative, but this became one of the most irritating seasons I’ve ever covered, both in the lack of excitement to the dichotomy that circumstance presented for me (given that my favorite film of the year has lead the field throughout).

    With that in mind, I fully expect this piece to grate the nerves of more than a few readers.  Then again, I’m sure plenty of these views are shared by a handful as well, but whatever the case, a list of pet peeves began to stack up early on in the season.  I thought it reasonable to collect them here, so feast your eyes (or roll them), this is what got under my skin this year.

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  • Oh, one more reason the Academy missed the boat this year…

    The Grammys saw fit to give Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard the award for best score soundtrack last night. The HFPA, as you know, gave The Boss a Golden Globe earlier this year. Did the Academy distinguish itself by snubbing these two works or just further prove that music branch to be off its rocker?

  • 1/8 Oscarweb Round-up

    Rebecca Hall• Patrick Goldstein waxes on about why he thinks “WALL-E,” “The Reader” and “The Wrestler” will be Oscar losers (for Best Pic). [The Big Picture]

    • Peter Bart observes Oscar campaign “combat fatigue” at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. [Peter Bart]

    • Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard talk to KCRW’s Jason Bentley. [KCRW]

    • David Carr does some pre-DGA speculating. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Tom O’Neil takes a stab at predicting tonight’s Critics’ Choice Awards. [Gold Derby]

    • While a few online mag staffers take a stab at the Globes. [Premiere]

    • In praise of Clint Eastwood’s…face. [Slate]

    • Xan Brooks wonders what the point of the People’s Choice Awards is. [The Guardian]

    • Rebecca Hall gets some much-deserved ink across the pond for popping up on the BAFTA Best Newcomer shortlist. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Howard Feinstein talks to “Man on Wire” director James Marsh. [indieWIRE]

    • John Horn on the perils of high-brow cinema in the marketplace. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Esther Walker says “Revolutionary Road” will change the obscurity of Richard Yates. [The Independent]

    • Kevin Maher talks to Liev Schreiber about the action hero redefining of his career as of late. [The Times]

  • ‘Dark Knight’: “The Sound of Anarchy”

    If you’ve picked up the DVD of “The Dark Knight,” then you’ve probably already seen the great featurette on Hans Zimmer’s musical vision of the Joker in the film.  The studio has made the six-minute feature available at the film’s FYC website, but I tracked it down on YouTube below.  I love watching this creative process.  Despite some moaning that the score is merely flat background acoustics, I remain of the mind that Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s work is powerful aural storytelling of the unconventional sort, fully deserving of awards consideration.

  • Coulda been a countenda

    It’s on AMC, so I figured I’d go hunting down that original teaser for Michael Bay’s “Pearl Harbor,” featuring excerpts from Hans Zimmer’s “The Thin Red Line” score.  Remember when this was one of the coolest trailers ever?  Then the movie…dear lord, the movie.  I should really change the channel.  Anyway…

  • Zimmer speaks out on the ‘Dark Knight’ score controversy

    Hans ZimmerThe diligence Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein has been doing on this back-and-forth on the eligibility of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for “The Dark Knight” is, I think, exceptional.  Goldstein got Zimmer on the phone last night to discuss how the reversal of the decision came to pass.

    It seems Zimmer went, in person, to the music branch’s executive committee meeting Friday night to plead his case:

    “My basic argument was–composers are honest human beings…If we’re telling you that we, and we alone, wrote the score, why don’t you believe us? We were very candid. We said, ‘Why would we lie? And if you don’t believe us, go ask Chris Nolan, the film’s director. He saw who did the work.’”

    That’s fair enough and I’m glad he got everything across to the branch that needed to be, but even with that in mind, I think the rules should extend to whatever number of composers are necessary.  Why put a limit on it?  That’s irritated me on many fronts for years.  The three producer thing for Best Picture nominees in particular.  But Zimmer had some stinging things to say about all of that as well:

    I think the value of the Oscars is being erased by the narrowness and nitpicking of all the academy rules and regulations. The executive committee shouldn’t be excluding people’s work because of technicalities. Especially today, with all the new work methods and new technology, the academy needs to change–they have to keep pace if they want to stay relevant.

    Amen.

  • Getting around to the BFCAs

    Kate Beckinsale in Nothing But the TruthA late night premiere and after party kept me in bed most of the morning.  It happens.  So I’m just now coming around to today’s BFCA announcement.  First, some reactions (full disclosure, I am a member of the organization).

    First and foremost, the group subtracted one category (Best Family Film) and added another (Best Action Film).  I think we all know where the latter is headed.  Speaking of which, “The Dark Knight” actually had a hell of a showing, popping up in the expected areas but also grabbing a nomination for director Christopher Nolan and composers James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer (who find themselves back in the Oscar hunt as of yesterday).

    The group also combined the Best Young Actor and Best Young Actress categories to reflect both sexes in the same arena.  A good call, since I’m sure I’m not the only one who has felt like I was grasping at straws to list six names some years.

    The startling omission: “Revolutionary Road.”  I’m sure there are more than a few broken hearts at Paramount Vantage this morning, but chin up.  “Into the Wild” landed the most nominations with the BFCA last year and only managed two Oscar nominations.  So it all goes to show you these things aren’t set in stone.  That having been said, the BFCA is simply the best Oscar predictor around and I’m thinking it will prove itself a nice tip sheet going into January 22.

    A few quasi-surprises were in store.  I’m sure not too many people were expecting Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga’s names to pop up for Rod Lurie’s “Nothing But the Truth.”  Lurie, it should be said, is a founding member of the BFCA, though in fairness, that was 15 years ago and he was in the group for two years.  He has friends in the organization, sure, but they represent a fraction of the 200-strong membership.  Regardless, I truthfully think both actresses deserve a spot at the table so it’s nice they could push their way through.

    But getting back to “Revolutionary Road,” this is an out-and-out shut-out, and that really hurts the film’s buzz potential.  It’s one thing to miss this category or that, but nothing for Leo (with six shots at it), nothing for Kate (ditto), not even a nod for Michael Shannon, who damn well deserves a mention.  I’m truthfully surprised.  I think our Best Picture line-up will be taken from the top 10 list, and like I said, it can’t be happy times for that hard-working crew.  Scott Rudin is still sitting pretty, though, as his “Doubt” popped up in a number of areas.  But “Button,” “Dark Knight,” “Frost,” “Milk,” “Slumdog” — you might as well take it to the bank.

    Oh, and one final note.  I’m actually quite happy to see Clint Eastwood’s name pop up in the composer category for “Changeling.”  I think the jazzy soundtrack is his best work as a film musician to date and, if the Academy’s music branch ever saw past their bias, would make a fine Oscar nominee.  Nice to see him show up here.

    The top 10 list, with a full list of nominations after the jump:

    Best Picture
    “Changeling”
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Doubt”
    “Frost/Nixon”
    “Milk”
    “The Reader”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “WALL-E”
    “The Wrestler”

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  • Yes, it’s true — Zimmer and Howard are back in the mix

    Patrick Goldstein’s sources are apparently right on.  I was told by a representative party at tonight’s premiere of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” that, indeed, James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s wonderful score for “The Dark Knight” is officially back in the running for an Oscar.  I was actually told this was coming two days ago, but had nothing to go on beyond one inside source, so I didn’t want to go there yet.  Oh well.  Here’s hoping it can translate to a nomination, but that pesky two-composer thing might still stick in the branch’s craw.

    It was an interesting place to hear the news, considering the only score that tops Howard and Zimmer is Alexandre Desplat’s sublime work on “Button,” the likely (and deserving) Oscar victor.

  • Take that, Oscar: Grammy nominates ‘Dark Knight’ duo

    The Academy’s petty disqualification of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for “The Dark Knight” from Oscar contention has already caused much gnashing of teeth on these pages, so here’s something to compound the embarrassment.

    It seems the Grammy voters are rather less fussy. Zimmer and Howard’s work was nominated yesterday in the category of (deep breath now) Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media. (Still with me? Good.)

    And hey, look who joins them on the list: none other than Jonny Greenwood for “There Will Be Blood,” who of course won last year’s Oscar because the work was simply too groundbreaking to be ignored. Oh right, except he didn’t, because he was disqualified. Sensing a pattern here?

    We shouldn’t be surprised by now that a voting body unrelated to the field of film should exhibit more common sense than AMPAS’ music blue-hairs, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

    Joining Greenwood, Zimmer and Howard on the list are three more 2008 contenders, Thomas Newman for “WALL-E,” Ramin Djawadi (surprise!) for “Iron Man” and John Williams (yawn) for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

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  • WB scores available at awards site

    In the wake of the James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s disqualification no less.  But fuck it, it’s a fantastic piece of work and you can listen to the whole damn thing at the Warner Bros. awards site, so rise up and feel the righteousness.

    The ‘Gran Torino’ score has been tossed up as well, an expectedly low-key composition by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens.

  • ‘Dark Knight’ score officially DQ’d by Academy

    (from left) Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman in The Dark KnightUPDATE (8:14 p.m.): Now comes this story from Jon Burlingame at Variety (always well-informed on this stuff), spelling out the particulars:

    Sources inside the committee said that the big issue was the fact that five names were listed as composers on the music cue sheet, the official studio document that specifies every piece of music (along with its duration and copyright owner) in the film.

    Zimmer said, in an interview with Variety prior to this week’s Acad action, that listing multiple names on the cue sheet was a way of financially rewarding parts of the music team who helped make the overall work successful. (Performing-rights societies like ASCAP and BMI use the cue sheet to distribute royalties to composers.)

    Zimmer, Howard and the other three individuals — music editor Alex Gibson, ambient music designer Mel Wesson and composer Lorne Balfe — reportedly signed an affidavit stating that the score was primarily the work of Zimmer and Howard.

    That apparently wasn’t enough for the majority of the committee, which was also supplied with documentation indicating that more than 60%, but less than 70%, of the score was credited to Zimmer and Howard.

    What a load of horseshit, no?

    EARLIER: Not that this is a surprise, but I’m hearing that because there were too many names listed on the cue sheet for “The Dark Knight” score, the work has been disqualified.  The music branch apparently spent a considerable amount of time discussing the issue and likely due to their labyrinthine rules, which have been bandied about considerably in other outlets.

    It’s a shame, seeing as I thought James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer really added considerably to the flavor of their original work in “Batman Begins” (also disqualified in 2005).  But the bottom line here is, someone needs to take a sandblaster to this branch’s rulebook and do away with the subjectivity that can really eat away at some fine work.

    More as it comes…