Lalo Schifrin's score for the George Lucas debut, THX-1138
© 2003 FSM

Related Links

0

The Chubbchubbs are Coming!!! And They Won an Oscar!

OSCAR-WINNING FANTASY SHORT TOOK A CHANCE ON MUSIC

Chance Thomas, the award-winning composer most widely known for his innovative work in interactive games, created the music for "The Chubbchubbs" which has won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Director Eric Armstrong accepted the award on behalf of the team, which included veteran game impresario Thomas.

Producer Jacquie Barnbrook said, "Chance was an inspiration, always sharing his talent and generosity to the collaborative spirit of this piece", while "The Chubbchubbs" sound designer Tim Larkin attested, "Chance never ceases to amaze me with his composing." His first foray into theatrical film, Chance's music featured in "The Chubbchubbs" opened for MEN IN BLACK II and STUART LITTLE II on 10,000 theater screens worldwide in the summer of 2002. The short is now available with Sony Pictures' MEN IN BLACK II DVD.

Thomas, who [IMG5R]produced one of the first live orchestral scores in an interactive game, Quest For Glory V: Dragon Fire, was responsible for composing and producing all of the original music for "The Chubbchubbs." The original orchestral score composed and orchestrated by Chance was performed by the Utah Film Orchestra and mixed at Sony Pictures Sound in Culver City, CA. The film also features remakes of the classic songs "Respect" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?" which Chance produced as well.

"Obviously, I'm thrilled", commented Thomas, "Having 'The Chubbchubbs' win the Oscar was huge, and the crowning finale to a memorable music scoring experience." He added, "Conducting the Utah Film Orchestra was truly exhilarating. They were well rehearsed, having recently played under John Williams for the Olympics, and they performed superbly for me."

Excerpts from the score can be heard online at: http://www.hugesound.com/AUDIOdemos.htm.

Chance, whose credits include music production for Blizzard Entertainment's WARCRAFT III theatrical trailer, is a winner of many accolades, having been honored by the Emmy Awards, Aurora Awards, Addy Awards, Telly Awards, and the Vault Network Awards. Other game titles for which Chance has contributed a broad range of music services include: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (EA), Earth & Beyond (EA), Robota: Reign of Machines teaser (Doug Chiang Studios), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Vivendi-Universal), Unreal II (Infogames), Middle-Earth Online (Sierra Online), and the upcoming titles The Hobbit (Vivendi-Universal), and Aridaen Gates (SierraTel Entertainment).

This Week's RecommendationS

England's Silva Screen [IMG6L]Records, through the PrimeTime label, has released a splendid 3-disc set containing the original soundtracks to the first three HELLRAISER films, entitled HELLRAISER: THE CHRONICLES (TVPMCD 809). In a limited collector's package of only 3,000 copies, the discs come in an inventively packaged box, folding out in multiple directions to resemble the puzzle box that figures so exquisitely in each film. HELLRAISER and its sequel, HELLBOUND, were both scored by Christopher Young, who invested the films with a tremendous orchestral power, the music seething and surging through orchestral textures, powerful crescendos, and bizarrely orchestrated sonic cacophonies. Each disc in the set contains the contents of the original, and now out of print, soundtrack albums to each film (GNP Crescendo's HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II album also included seven cues from HIGHPOINT which are, reasonably, not included here). HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH was scored by Randy Miller with similar dynamic assurance, and retains a similar musical power that really elevates the sensation of these remarkable films. The music is just tremendous, among the best horror music of the last 15 years, and combining them all works very well. No word on whether or not the music from the next four films (BLOODLINE, 1996, Daniel Licht; INFERNO, 2000, Walter Werzowa; HELLSEEKER, 2002, Stephen Edwards; or the upcoming DEADER, 2004 and HELLWORLD, 2004) will be issued/reissued in similar fashion or not (BLOODLINE was released by Silva as a single CD soundtrack in '96; the others have not been issued on CD). A short booklet is included which outlines in brief the films and their musical history.

From Japan

THE TOUCH

© Basil Poledouris

Another Asian [IMG7L]import is HERO, Tan Dun's eloquent new score that seems to have some thematic links with his previous CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, at least in terms of its being also a detailed historical martial arts epic. The story is a quasi-fantasy historical epic of ancient China, told in sumptuous style by director Zhang Yimou. The music, also obtainable as a Hong Kong import from www.buysoundtrax.com (Sony SK 87960), features violin solos by Itzhak Perlman and the drums of the Japanese ensemble Kodo, supported by a large orchestra and chorus. But even at its size, the music remains very intimate, scoring the inner selves of the characters who people this period drama. The music is very precise and responsive, intriguing in its layers and textures.

This month's

Gerry Anderson's classic SuperMarionation TV show THUNDERBIRDS on CD

© 2003 Silva Screen

From Silva Screen

Lalo Schifrin's score for the George Lucas debut, THX-1138

© 2003 FSM

I had the opportunity to interview Barry Gray in 1982, shortly before his death, and he had the fondest of memories for these scores: "It was Gerry's idea not to write kiddy music for the puppet shows, and that I should not let the fact that the shows were puppets affect the music at all. I should write as one would for a film, in a normal way, and this is what I always did. I never wrote down to children. I scored as I felt. That was what we did more or less throughout the whole of those series." The result was a plethora of charming and splendid adventure music, oftentimes freely tracked throughout different episodes. Kudos to Silva for collecting the best from THUNDERBIRDS in the first of what hopefully will become a running series. FIREBALL XL-5 next, perhaps?

Germany's Bear Family Records [IMG8R]continues to produce some of most attractive and beautifully packaged collections I've ever seen, in both the country & western and film music fields. Two recent additions to their German Film Composer (Deutsche Filmkomponisten) series collects the work of composers Rolf Wilhelm (Vol. 4; BCD 16484 AR) and Erwin Halletz (Vol 8, BCD 16488 AR). Like others in this series, the style of the music and the films it accompanies varies greatly, from westerns to war films, sexploitation comedies to noirish dramas. Wilhelm received some note in the 1960s when he composed the two-part Wagnerian fantasy DIE NIBELUNGEN for director Harald Reinl (and a very nice 2-CD soundtrack was issued in 2001 on Cobra Records), but as evidenced by the other 33 tracks on the compilation which ranges from 1954 to 1977, he wrote dozens of other types of films as well. Of note is his urban-jazz theme for SCOTLAND YARD JABGT DR. MABUSE, one of many films to use Fritz Lang's Mabuse character (or some variant thereof), and the circus-like fanfare from the 1954 mystery, PHANTOM DES GROSSEN ZELTES. The Halletz collection is equally diverse, starting with the exotic music for LIANE, DAS MÄDCHEN AUS DEM URWALD, Germany's answer to Sheena the Jungle Girl. There's also some terrific Western music on the disc, some of which also appeared on Bear's earlier collection of German western scores. Nearly all of these films have never made it to American shores, making collections like these a goldmine of hitherto unavailable orchestral film music.

SOUNDTRACK NEWS

As reported on imdb.com, Peter (LOTR) Jackson's next project will be a new remake of KING KONG for Universal, slated for a 2005 release. Universal says the film will be shot in New Zealand and will no doubt employ most of Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS staff, who are said to number nearly 500. This, of course, has led to speculation in film music circles whether or not Howard Shore will compose the new film, and whether anyone can truly equal the classic Max Steiner original (John Barry never came close with the 1976 remake, and John Scott's 1987 KING KONG LIVES is likable, but it just wasn't Kong. Neither were the Japanese scores by Akira Ifukube in the '60s).

Word has [IMG9L]it that Mychael Danna has been dropped from Ang Lee's THE HULK due to "creative differences." Danny Elfman has been signed to the project in his place, despite having vowed to take a year or more off from film scoring after completing RED DRAGON. Evidently, studio execs at Universal were unhappy with demos of the score Danna was asked to write by director Lee, and so Universal made the decision to switch composers in midstream and go for something they felt would be "more commercial."

Silva Screen [IMG10R]will release on May 6th a soundtrack to the video game, PRIMAL (FILMCD366), composed by newcomers Bob & Barn but performed by the Prague Philharmonic and by Silva's conductor-in-residence, Nic Raine. To accompany the Playstation 2 video game, Sony Computer Entertainment commissioned a stunning symphonic score. PRIMAL encompasses five film scores in one, featuring a unique musical identity for each realm of the game.

Numenorian Music reports their premiere soundtrack of Trevor Jones's THE DARK CRYSTAL, delayed from last September, will be available for pre ordering exclusively from www.buysoundtrax.com on Apr 7^th with a ship date of April 21^st. The long-awaited release will be a 2-disc set containing both the complete original soundtrack LP on CD #1, with the complete score that was used in the film on CD #2 amounting to nearly 2 hours of music in all.

Varese Sarabande will announce their new limited edition and highly anticipated Club releases on Monday April 7^th.

The 2-CD soundtrack to THE MATRIX: RELOADED will only contain about 27 minutes of Don Davis's score; the bulk of the album will be the alternative and rock music written for the film by various groups.

Superb Records will issue John Ottman's score for X-MEN 2.

Jerry Goldsmith has completed his score for Richard Donner's TIMELINE, but the film has been pushed back till late fall for release.

The USA network's new miniseries, HELEN OF TROY, debuting April 13^th, has been scored by Joel (STARGATE SG-1) Goldsmith (Jerry's son).

Paul Hunter's BULLETPROOF MONK, the latest American-Asian buddy flick, starring Chow Yun-Fat and Sean William Scott, has been scored by Eric Serra (LA FEMME NIKITA, GOLDENEYE).

Christopher Young's latest assignment, after THE CORE, is Gary Fleder's high-stakes courtroom drama, THE RUNAWAY JURY, starring Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, and John Cusak.

Joel McNeely has scored Disney's latest live-action adventure comedy, HOLES, directed by Andrew Davis and starring Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, and Patricia Arquette.

NEXT WEEK

Interviewing Christopher Young: Getting to THE CORE of the score.

Soundtrax is our weekly Movie Soundtrack column.