Forum Replies Created
- Posts
Elfman’s name was also prominently featured on the cover of the “Big Fish” DVD. He might be the only film composer to be honored in this way.
Also, I forgot to mention that Elfman will be doing the music for Iron Man, Fantastic Four 2, Wolverine, and The Dark Knight.
What a bittersweet night for fans of film music. The immortal Ennio Morricone is finally honored by Oscar only to have the whole thing tainted by this… this… ARGGH!
Where’s the Tylenol?
Sweeney Todd is an operatic musical (with music inspired by Bernard Herrmann) that is almost completely sung, meaning that there simply wouldn’t be much for Elfman to do. Furthermore, if they were to add a new song, why not just have the still active Stephen Sondheim write it? I know we’re all Elfman fans, but shouldn’t the original composer be given at least some say as to whether or not his work should be altered?
I have not seen the movie, but I have read the book. Though I felt it was certainly the most generic of Mr. Harris’ works (it is a simple revenge story, after all), I did feel it was superior to HANNIBAL, which was very over-the-top and ludicrous to the point of being funny (the book was even more bizarre than the film!). That being said, I hope that Mr. Harris’ next novel will be a Lecter-free one, seeing as how the character has been exhausted. And given his pace, we’ll only have to wait until 2012.
Also, Stephen Sondheim (the composer and lyricist) and Jonathan Tunick (the orchestrator) are still alive and quite active. I don’t see why Sondheim can’t adapt his own music if needed.
Most overrated might be a bit harsh, but I do agree that I can always count on Elfman to do the heavy lifting when Burton is phoning it in (i.e. Planet of the Apes). I thought Burton was the perfect choice for Todd, seeing the similarities that exist between his films and the original Harold Prince production, but then he cast Depp, who only a year and a half ago flatly stated that he can’t sing, in one of the most vocally challenging roles in all of musical theatre. At least the rest of his casting is dead-on.
If anything, this does have the potential to be Burton’s most breathtaking visual film, which is saying a lot.
I actually think Carter is great casting. But I’m with you on Depp. Even if he manages to pull off some decent singing, I just can’t imagine him topping George Hearn or Brian Stokes Mitchell (in other words, people who are actually trained baritones).
Christopher Lee’s role is apparantly more of a cameo, seeing as how he is supposedly playing Fogg, the warden at an insane asylum. Ditto for Sacha Baron Cohen, for Pirelli only has a few scenes in the first act.
A writer at Film Score Monthly wrote something about that when Spider-man came out nearly five years ago. I believe it was in one of the print issues, which I have since disposed of, so I’m afraid I can’t pinpoint the exact issue or writer. I’ve never noticed the similarities myself, but I must admit that the late Miles Goodman provided a score at least one hundred times more enjoyable than the garbage film it is attached to. One of my favorite unreleased scores (which tells a lot about my tastes, I’m afraid.).
But now that it’s been brought up, Serenada Schizophrana does blatantly rip-off large sections of the WHITE CHICKS score. Can’t believe Elfman thought he’d be able to get away with it. I sincerely hope he will show enough restraint in the future to not shamefully rob from the rich Wayans canon.
I’m currently listening to Young’s “The Fly II” and am surprised how darn good it is, especially when put up against Howard Shore’s brilliant work on the original (re-make, that is). I think he’s quite capable of writing a great Spider-man score on his own, but he’s not going to get the chance with this one. How much original material (meaning passages of underscore that do not contain Elfman’s themes) can he possibly contribute given Raimi’s affinity towards the original Spider-man score? It seems that his affiliation with these films has done nothing more than hurt his credibility.
As for Ghost Rider… man does it look bad. I can’t blame Young if his score sucks. It reminds me of that legendary story about a film producer begging Bernard Herrmann to save the film he was working on with his music. The notoriously hot-headed composer’s response: “I can dress up a corpse, but I can’t bring it back to life.”
Isn’t Shaiman supposedly working on a musical version of “Catch Me If You Can” with the rest of the “Hairspray” team? It’s a shame he hasn’t gotten much work since his music for “Team America” was rejected for not being generic enough; that it sounded too much like Marc Shaiman.
The lyrics were published many years ago in FSM, but it’s something else entirely to see Shaiman (one of the funniest composers) perform it. Love the Zimmer dig and “Elman hand-me-down.”
To answer your question Natrebro, Williams won his most recent Oscar in 1994 for Schindler’s List. Well deserved.
Considering that the only Elfman scored film released in 2006 that featured original music (thus negating DEEP SEA 3D) was CHARLOTTE’S WEB, a film that wasn’t terribly impressive, I’m not too shocked by its lack of a nomination. I’m thrilled to see Newman nominated for a score that has freed him from the esoteric percussion that every director in Hollywood has him and every other composer temp. Here’s hoping future assignments will allow him that rare freedom. Maybe he’ll be allowed to go nuts if he scores WALL-E.
I wouldn’t call Desplat an Academy favorite since this is his first nomination. It should be noted that Elfman has praised the music from THE QUEEN (in FSMOnline, I believe). And with all due respect to Mr. Santaolalla, he reminds me of an acoustic version of Vangelis, which is NOT a compliment.
I promised my first girlfriend I’d buy her a mansion made out of chocolate. Keep in mind that I was in first grade when I made this oath. I just hope this case doesn’t set a precedent that will force me to pay up.
