- This topic has 218 replies, 37 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 11 months ago by
.
- Posts
The saga never ends!
Cues from SPIDER-MAN 1 and 2 will be adapted by Steve Bartek and recorded this week for SPIDER-MAN 3. This was requested by Sony — who has superceded Sam Raimi’s decision to let Chris Young write the score he wants — to keep the score’s sound related to the first two films.
And you thought the story was over… I have a feeling it won’t be until the first print of SPIDER-MAN 3 is struck!
Ryan
Awesome news! I trust Steve Bartek a hell of a lot more to preserve Danny’s sound than Christopher Young, who, as we heard in the 7-minute clip, chose not to do that. Thank goodness Sony is keeping everything in check… Raimi’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing (making a great movie) and Sony is making sure he sticks with just doing that. I’m actually pretty excited now to hear what Bartek might have to offer, as I was getting really worried that we wouldn’t hear any of the awesomeness that the first two movies had for Spidey’s swings (I’ve been playing “MJ’s New Life/Spidus Interruptus” and “The Bank/Saving May” continuously just to savor the greatness that is the Spider-Man theme).
I check this site (and specifically THIS thread) about 5 – 10 times a day because I was CONVINCED this story was not over. There is no way anyone in their right mind would allow the crap we heard so far to make the final print. (And as we all know, Raimi is not in his right mind).
I had a feeling something like this would happen…. and like Spider-fan said, I completely trust Bartek…. at least WAY more than I do Young.
On a side-note: I read these forums much more than I do post (which is a rarity for me on the internet), and I have to say that Spider-fan’s approach and ear for Elfman’s work is almost exactly like mine. Even within a community of Elfmaniacs, I still feel like everyone hears something different, but almost note for note the breakdown that Spiderfan gives, I’ve heard the same way. I love your appreciation for his music, and am really impressed by your ear… although I think Elfman’s music makes sense to anyone who knows his style well enough.
How the hell are those credits going to look now?
Themes by Danny Elfman, New themes by Christopher Young, Adapted by Steve Bartek?
The only thing I don’t want is another botched copy-paste patchwork like the one did they with the second one. But I know Steve Bartek knows better than that.
Now, this doesn’t surprise me one bit. Sony’s stakes are high on this one, having spent over $250 million without counting the marketing costs, which are supposed to be over $100 million in the US alone, so they are going to keep everyone involved in this on a very tight leash, Raimi included.
No matter what, the film is going to make a truckload of money. Seeing the opening weekends of Ghost Rider, Wild Hogs [ugh] and now 300, I’m sure S-M 3 will break Pirate of the Caribbean 2’s record and will make close [or more] than $150 million in its opening weekend. It will have two weeks all for itself before Shrek 3 comes along, so I’m almost positive this one will match [or surpass] the first film’s $400 million gross.
If Sony didn’t like Young’s work up to this point, then what’s to say they won’t axe him altogether and let Bartek adapt Elfman’s old cues along with the unheard “new” themes,
The new themes that Elfman wrote will _not_ be part of the equation. The film is out in 6 or 7 weeks, meaning that the sound mix will be happening very very soon. The studio is happy with a good portion of what Young did…. they just wanted more material reprised from the first two pictures because they don’t feel it’s enough like those scores.
The adapted Elfman material is being recorded tomorrow (3/13) and is scheduled for one day.
This is a guess, but I’m guessing the final “score” will be made up of Young’s new music, tomorrow’s sessions, and then sections tracked in from 1 and 2 that they didn’t want to take the time to rerecord.
I’m a little sad about how this is going down, honestly. I mean, my preference would have been to have Elfman do the whole picture of course, and while I’m not a fan of Chris Young, really, I don’t like it when film scores are goat-f***ed together like this at the last minute. I don’t think anyone wins in those situations, and the music clearly suffers.
That’s exactly my point of view. Yes, I’ll miss Elfman but if Young has been chosen, I would have preferred to see him being able to develop his work throughout the film…
I just saw you over at SuperHeroHype, Kipobe!
Are you willing to pony up cash for some gas? There’s this bus I’m planning to run Visionary over with…
Well, I’m a assistant editor for film in LA, so some of my info comes from being connected to that business. I hear other stuff from a combination of people I know who are involved with film music in some way (session players, music editors etc). Of course, I learn an awful lot from info that Ryan posts here too: He usually hears a lot more than I do on these matters!
In this case, I happen to have heard a lot of chatter over the last several days at parties and whatnot, so I’m in a rare position to pass info along. It’s juicy gossip in the film music world, so pretty much anyone who has anything to do with that sphere is talking about it how crazy the situation has become.
I really don’t know more than that the Elfman adaptations being recorded today, and it’s somewhat against Raimi’s wishes. When they first started recording, the word was that the studio really liked Young’s score, but were a little dissappointed that it did not sound more like Elfman. I heard about the Bartek material last week, and that they’d be recording for one day (today).
Young is keeping it cool and professional, but it’s really got to be hard to be in his position right now.
If you notice, I registered over there in 2001, a couple of months before the first film. I tried to reason with him before over the years, but I’ve come to the understanding that he literally knows nothing about film scores and strictly goes by the theme sound… I call it the John Williams syndrome. (No offense to Williams… he’s a great theme composer, but he’s not my favorite cue writer in general). Even though I’m a HUGE Spider-Man fan (and that’s why I signed up to the site in the first place), I rarely go into the Spider-Man forums… those places are a nuthouse. I stay mostly in the Community or the Games forum.
Who are you over at SHH!, DB?
I just lurk around when I know new trailers, pictures, TV spots, etc come out as I know they’ll be the first ones to get them.
When I first read some of Visionary’s posts, I wanted to register just to lay the smack on him, but I’ve realized it’s useless.
Now, johnmullin, do you happen to know what Elfman thinks of this whole mess?
And more importantly, DOES HE COME TO THIS SITE?
Then, I love you and I want to be your friend and possibly groom your pet hamster on alternate Thursdays.
Of all the composers who should be selected to work on an adaptation of Danny Elfman’s work, especially with the film being Spider-Man, Young seems one of the less likely choices, and I think I’ve figured out what happened. Raimi worked with Young on “The Gift,” a very appropriate movie for his style which came together very well. When Raimi wanted the “Hellraiser” music for “Spider-Man 2,” he only seemed to want the sound for the one scene in which it was used, thus associating Young with the franchise. One would think that Young would be thanked and sent off to do another B horror film, but instead, with Raimi unhappy with certain musical cues in “Spider-Man 2” and with the “Spider-Man 3” composer’s seat left empty due to Raimi and Elfman’s fight, Young just happened to be in the position where he seemed like a logical choice, considering he had already had some experience with the material. Unfortunately, the Young sound which worked adequately in the demonstration scene in the second movie didn’t at all match the Elfman sound from the rest of the movie and the movie that preceded it. Nonetheless, Young was Raimi’s favorite for some reason and he stayed on board and wrote a Chris Young score which, as we all now know, probably sounds horrible for the full score of a Spider-Man movie.
As I agreed before, Steve Bartek is a great choice to adapt Elfman’s material considering their history together and Bartek’s talent as a composer. Another great choice would have been John Debney if he was available.
Don’t forget that Chris Young also scored THE GRUDGE and THE GRUDGE 2 for Raimi’s GHOST HOUSE PICTURES.
Ryan
Anything new regarding this soap opera?
To those of you with the inside scoop :coughRyanjohnmullioncough: how did Steve Bartek’s recordings go?
I posted something similar to this on the FSM board a few days back, but wanted to repost here (with a lttle new info) in case some of the readers here don’t read that board. Here’s all that I’ve been told from talking with various people who know what the hell is going on…
-Raimi really likes Young’s music and most — if not all — of it will stay in the picture.
-Young had made use of several components from the previous two scores, including the main Spider-Man theme and the Green Goblin theme.
-Sony seemed to have some concern over Young’s love theme, however, and last week paid for two days of sessions where variations of Elfman’s love theme from the first two pictures were recorded. [For the record, Sony had a lot of concern over the love theme back on the first Spider-Man that resulted in Elfman doing a bunch of last minute fixes before the release as well — it sounds like the love theme generates a lot of discussion among the suits there.]
-The adaptations were not done by Debra Lurie… not by Elfman himself or by Steve Bartek. Bartek did, however, orchestrate the adapted cues. Lurie adapted some bits of Serenada Schizophrana for DEEP SEA 3D that Elfman didn’t have time to do himself, and assisted him in revising several cues for the second CHARLOTTE WEB sessions that happened last fall.
-It’s unclear at the moment if the adapted cues will actually be used in the final mix.
-Young finished recording his score this week, and the musicans involved seem to think the music is pretty good!
Thanks for all that info, john!
At this point, all I want is that the spirit of Elfman’s music is kept for the Main Titles and for the final swinging scene.
Even the people who don’t like Elfman’s music [namely a handful of trolls over at the superherohype boards] enjoy those two pieces of music, how couldn’t they?
I totally agree with Danny Burton’s hope. If they screw up the main titles or the final swing, there will be HELL to pay!
On a side note, if any of you have Comcast with OnDemand, they’re doing a special section with “Spider-Man 3” featuring a new, kickass trailer and some extra features, including recaps/interviews from the first two movies. In the “Spider-Man 2” recap, I noticed some additional footage that I’ve never seen before, not even in that so-called “extended cut,” and one of the bits was really quite amazing. One of the clips was Peter checking a police scanner in his apartment, but the really big one was about 10 extra seconds of the Spidey/Dock Ock’s train battle. If any of you have OnDemand, definitely check out this feature (listed as “SM2 Recap”).
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.