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The flashbacks in the stage play are much the way they appear in the film. Burton and his screenwriter cut a fair bit of dialogue expanding upon Sweeney’s single-minded quest for revenge, but I personally don’t believe it would have added anything to the film. The only characters I think were marginalized in the film where Anthony and Johanna, specifically how they don’t even have a scene together until the end of the movie ’cause “Ah, Miss” and “Kiss Me” were cut.
Very illuminating thoughts people have on what is clearly Burton’s greatest film since “Ed Wood.” Not that that is a very high bar seeing as how most of his output following that masterpiece has primarily consisted of misfires (I am excepting “Big Fish,” of course). I also disagree with these snide dismissals of Sondheim’s brilliant work. As a dramatist/lyricist, Sondheim is leagues ahead of his contemporaries, stage and screen.
Reminds me of James Horner’s 2005 plate, with Flightplan, The New World, Zorro, and All the King’s Men all scheduled for the last two months of the year (King’s Men was eventually delayed an entire year, but the film was finished on schedule).
Ah, the 90s… I believe there was a TV Guide interview from 94 or 95 when he was asked about “Family Dog.” He said that he and Burton weren’t given the budget to do anything memorable. Bad animation, bad scripts. The show was pretty much a placeholder.
Seems that every film Elfman has been attached to lately has seen its release date shifted (Meet the Robinsons, Charlotte’s Web, The Invasion, Hellboy II, The Kingdom). Now “Wanted” will be competing directly with two very high profile films (Pixar’s “WALL-E” and Bryan Singer’s “Valkyrie”).
Sounds like Tunick was able to improve his already brilliant orchestrations. Hopefully he’ll be able to reprise his role in next year’s “Nine.”
There were a couple of variations of the family theme from “Meet the Robinsons” that I wish made the CD (notably when Lewis travels into the past). I guess I’ll have to wait until I find someone who has the complete score.
Couldn’t be. Disney NEVER makes mistakes. Mark my words, “Home on the Range” will be talked about in the same breath as “Chinatown” in the not-too-distant-future.
Nope, Lee was cut a few weeks into filming. He never even got a chance to show up on set. The most frequently reported reason is because the shoot was in danger of going over due to Depp’s daughter’s illness suspending filming.
People will be in for a surprise when “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” kicks the movie off. “Wha? What’s with the singing?”
I’m just glad to see that the article confirms the involvement of Jonathan Tunick, the orchestrator of the original Broadway show. His arrangements on the original cast recording are brilliant.
Considering that Family Guy barely takes the effort to integrate their jokes in a convincing fashion (not that that’s a bad thing), I doubt they would have taken the effort to research if Elfman conducts his work. And, let’s face it, the “wacky” Elfman music of the 80s is his most used work (it seems that every year at least one trailer uses the Beetlejuice titles).
They probably used Elfman since he’s an arguably bigger name than Zimmer and most definately has a more distinctive writing style. People would have cheered too loudly if Zimmer was decapitated.
Now if they could only put something in the movie to make it watchable. Shame that Elfman’s great music for PotA has had to be featured in two very lacking films.
“Let’s not forget Spider-man 2…”
Yeah, let’s not. How he totally got screwed over and had half of his work jettisoned from the project. I’m sure Elfman will remember that before commiting himself to another Marvel film.
Could, but probably won’t. In interviews, Elfman makes it sound like the only reason he was even interested in the first HULK was Ang Lee. Unless he has a burning desire to work with the director of The Transporter, I think he’ll sit this one out.
I forget where it was, might’ve been Film Score Monthly, Elfman talked a bit about Harry Potter, how a bunch of industry folks (possibly his agent) were trying to convince him to campaign for the job of scoring the first Harry Potter film, insisting that it’s the perfect fit for him. He passed on the idea of selling himself to the filmmakers, saw the movie, and said something around the effect of “wizards aren’t my thing.”
One of the reasons for Williams’ tumble could be his relaxed output as of late. Sure, he did four scores in 2005, but hasn’t done anything since, his next score scheduled for a May 2008 release. That’s why he dropped down a few spots on FSM’s annual countdown.
It was early in his career when he had nothing but hit after hit. I’d feel like a god after doing Pee-wee, Beetlejuice, and Batman in the span of only a few years. Also, Elfman has said that the Batman theme is one of his favorite compositions. Wouldn’t be shocked if he was highly protective of the franchise. In an FSM interview, he seemed pretty pissy about the Batman Forever situation.
An excerpt from Michael Schelle’s interview with Shirley Walker in The Score, pg 373:
“From the beginning, the producers on that show- Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, and Eric Radomski- did not want a Danny Elfman sound for the Batman character. They had seen my work on the Flash television series and liked my work from there. They wanted me to do the theme. They were very, very dismayed when Danny insisted that he was the only human being on the planet who could write for Batman, and that it should be his theme for their show. I didn’t get to have the theme until after that had sort of subsided. Then we created the theme we wanted for the show. As I said, they were not interested in it sounding like Danny Elfman, but I think that I was influenced by Danny’s work for the first Batman movie because it was a great sound for the Batman character. Personally, I knew I didn’t want to go away from that Gothic, overdone, overstated method of treatment for the Batman character.”
Earlier in the interview, Walker talked about her parting ways with Elfman. She felt that all the accusations that she was writing his music had an unhealthy affect on their working relationship and careers. She also praises his work on Batman, calling it ‘ground-breaking’ and believing that he was robbed at the Oscars for not even being nominated.
