Soundtrax

Note for Note -- The Scoop on July's Movie Music

By: Randall D. Larson
Date: Saturday, June 30, 2001

The summer is upon us as are a number of mainstream scores from composers like Graeme Revell (TOMB RAIDER), Elliott Goldenthal (FINAL FANTASY) and Carter Burwell (A KNIGHT'S TALE). A plethora of unique and unusual releases like FANTOMAS, GODZILLA VS MEGAGUIRUS and A BETTER TOMORROW join the above-mentioned Hollywood A-list to share in the hot summer fun.

SOUNDTRAX NEWS

PLANET OF THE APES, Tim Burton's lavish "re-imagining" of the 1968 classic, will, of course, sport a score from long-time Burton collaborator Danny Elfman. A recent report from Dark Horizons.com indicates that the score recorded in mid June was performed by "one of the largest orchestras ever" (about 102 players). Musicfromthemovies.com later described the orchestra's unusual brass section as: " [the] huge brass section includes 12 French horns, 12 trombones, 3 trumpets and 2 tubas. The 102-piece orchestra is joined by a choir."

NIGHT VISIONS is set to premiere on Fox television Thursday, July 12 and will feature music by George S. Clinton (AUSTIN POWERS). The TV show has been described as "The Twilight Zone of the New Millennium" (very cool and very scary). Clinton also wrote a score for SCARY MOVIE 2 (in theaters on July 4) that was ultimately rejected. A replacement composer has not yet been named.

JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS, Paramount's forthcoming animated feature, will be scored by John Debney (END OF DAYS), who just finished scoring the new fantasy comedy, CATS & DOGS.

Don Davis (THE MATRIX) has just finished recording a lavish new score for JURASSIC PARK III. Davis was recommended for the assignment by fellow composer John Williams, who was unable to score the film himself because of his commitment to Steven Spielberg's A.I.. Davis has incorporated four of William's themes from the first two films into the new score, balancing them with new material and Davis's own unique approach to action sequences.

THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDATION

FINAL FANTASY has been released on CD from Sony (SK 89697). It is a broad and [IMG2R] atmospheric score by Elliot Goldenthal (BATMAN FOREVER). In addition to the 16 cues performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, the CD includes a pair of songs from Lara Fabian and L'Arc-en-Ciel.

"It's the composer's challenge to focus the dramatic needs of a film project, which in the case of FINAL FANTASY presented a strange hybrid between the fantastical and the hyper-human," writes Goldenthal in the CD's booklet. "There seemed to be only one logical answer for me, which was to amplify the humanness in any place that was dramatically possible."

For the film's action sequences, Goldenthal used "orchestration techniques associated with the late 20th Century Polish avant-garde, as well as my own experiments from ALIEN 3 and 19th-Century Straussian brass and string instrumentation."

SCORES ON CD

A KNIGHT'S TALE, with music by Carter Burwell (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH), has just been issued by Columbia (CK 85947). Burwell's score is heartfelt, passionate and rhythmically persuasive, incorporating just the right amount of ethnic instrumentation to give the story and its knightly character a sense of place and period. Use of choir enhances the orchestration, as does the use of an electric guitar, providing a neat and interesting instrumental mix.

The latest release in England's GDI series of Hammer soundtracks is a nicely matched pairing of SHE, composed by Hammer's horror music wizard James Bernard (HORROR OF DRACULA), with VENGEANCE OF SHE, scored by Italian maestro Mario Nascimbene (ONE MILLION YEARS BC). Available on GDI 018.

[IMG3L]

GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS (also known as GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS: THE G ANNIHILATION STRATEGY), last year's entry in Toho's giant monster franchise, featured a score from the first ever female Godzilla composer, Michiru Oshima. The score has been released in the US from GNP Crescendo Records (GNPD 8072). The CD includes the original Godzilla theme by Akira Ifukube, as well as original sound effects from the film.

GNP Crescendo is also set to release music from Roger Corman's sexy female Batman takeoff, BLACK SCORPION. The CD includes Kevin (WING COMMANDER) Kiner's score for the movie and David G. Russell's music for the succeeding TV series. (Check out www.gnpcrescendo.com)

STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE will debut this November as a two-hour TV movie scored by Dennis McCarthy, but whether or not McCarthy will compose the new series theme remains undecided.

MASQUERADE, Bob Swaim's 1988 thriller with a moody and evocative score by John Barry, will be released for the first time on CD by Prometheus Records in Belgium as part of the label's private release club. (Check out www.soundtrackmag.com)

TOMB RAIDER, the score by Graeme Revell, is now out on CD from Elektra (62681). This is separate from the song CD already in release. Revell's music emphasized electronics and percussion with a trendy techno-beat in keeping with the film's MTV audience focus, enhanced by an occasional presence of orchestra and chorus.

FANTOMAS, the French James Bondesque mystery series from the 1960s starring Jean Marais (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST), was scored by Michel Magne, as were its two sequels, FANTOMAS SE DECHAINE and FANTOMAS CONTRE SCOTLAND YARD. Excerpts from each score, including several alternate cues, have been issued in France on Universal Emarcy (013 476 2). The same label has issued or reissued several other notable French scores, including Maurice Jarre's Western score for RED SUN.

[IMG4R]

A BETTER TOMORROW, John Woo's masterful Hong Kong thriller starring Chow-Yun Fat, featured a snazzy, trendy synth score by Joseph Koo, which is now available on CD from Japan (TACD 00002). The recording includes 20 tracks from both of Woo's BETTER TOMORROW films.

MARK OF THE DEVIL, the 1969 German horror film with music by Michael Holm, has been paired with the score for 1972's MARK OF THE DEVIL II, with music by Don Banks and John Scott on a private label CD out of Italy (Diggler DIG 001). The CD is taken from the original mono soundtrack recording.

THE MISTS OF AVALON, the new mini-series adaptation of the Marion Zimmer-Bradley fantasy, was scored by Lee Holdridge (TV's BEAUTY & THE BEAST). The score was just released on CD by Varese Sarabande (66266).

A shining new concert CD released by Telarc (CD-80433), THE FILM MUSIC OF JERRY GOLDSMITH, features the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, in a dazzling performance of some of Goldsmith's best material, including STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, and medleys from TV scores for MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and STAR TREK: VOYAGER. Speaking of Goldsmith, a CD issued as a souvenir of Disney's California Adventure Theme Park includes a recording of "Soarin'" a 4:43 piece composed by Goldsmith as a backdrop to one of the park's rides. Another tune by film composer Bruce Broughton is included on the disc.

THE CHANGELING, Peter Medak's impressive 1979 ghost story with George C. Scott, is due out soon from Percepto Records (www.percepto.com). The score, never before released on LP or CD, is a moody and spooky composition with an interesting history: Howard Blake (AMITYVILLE II/III) was originally commissioned by Medak to score the project. Blake composed the film's haunting music box theme, duplicated as the piano concerto "composed" and performed by Scott in the film. The production moved to Canada, however, and Blake was out, replaced by veteran Hollywood orchestrator-composer Ken Wannberg (THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT). In order to take advantage of Canadian tax breaks, however, the producers brought in Canadian composer Rick Wilkins, although the majority of his work was unused. The CD incorporates the best of each composer into a seamless whole, which worked superbly on film and is nicely preserved on disc.

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