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Somehow I feel like I heard somewhere about Danny passing or being unable to do LOTR despite an offer, but maybe it was a rumor or speculation or something. Also I’ve heard stories about him meeting with Kevin Smith to discuss “Dogma,” but I think scheduling was what caused him not to do it. That’s another project that Howard Shore did instead of him!
I just read that John Debney’s been officially attached to “Iron Man,” though this shouldn’t be a surprise considering it’s a Jon Favreau film. I’m excited to hear what he comes up with, as I love the action material he writes — the main titles from “Zathura” have gotten a lot of play on my iPod lately.
This is among many car commercials that emulate the Elfman sound. Seriously, it seems like every other car commercial on TV copies his style!
Yeah, I feel like she’s going to eat our souls. Anyway, I just listened to the Gary Winick commentary, and there were about 6 or so mentions of Danny, several of which were just things like, “the choir here is really nice,” but there was also some more detailed comments, some blatantly obvious and some at least a bit enlightening:
On the opening titles: “Danny Elfman, the composer, came up with this brilliant idea for the opening, which was to start the music over the logos. By doing this, we were able to unify the logos and seamlessly get into the beginning of the film. We also could give an energy to the opening that we couldn’t if we started the music over the credits because we would have to settle into the narration.”
On the lullaby: “Danny Elfman wrote a lullaby before the film started, an the idea was that Fern’s mom used to sing it to Fern, Fern sings it to Wilbur, and Charlotte sings it to Wilbur at the end of the film, and it turns out we just used it for Fern singing to Wilbur.”
On the end titles and “Ordinary Miracle”: “Paramount wanted a pop song to end the film, and I really didn’t feel like that was right for ‘Charlotte’s Web.’ So I called Danny Elfman to talk about it and he suggested that I let it go, to just see what they’d come up with… I was really shocked when I heard it that they came up with something that embodied the spirit of the film. I just didn’t think that those two could go together, and it worked out really well.
No Elfman in the general making-of featurette either, just too much praise for that creepy little Dakota Fanning. I’ll try to listen to the commentaries for music comments before I send the DVD back.
Posted by: Spider-Fan
Date: March 13, 2007 04:07PM
Another great choice would have been John Debney if he was available.Ohhh, who called it?! Needless to say, I’m satisfied with this.
I thought maybe the whole score would be better than the samples, but boingomusic’s description is pretty much what I’ve thought of the samples. Well, they can’t all be winners, right? And that “The Future had Arrived” theme is stuck in my head, whatever that means.
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”).
Speaking of Bernard Herrmann, did anyone happen to watch that new show “Andy Barker P.I.”? It seems the show mocks classic film noir, and within the first minute I could tell the music was supposed to be Herrmann-esque or Elfman-esque. I found it very clear and I’m just curious to see if anyone thought this as well.
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.
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 wasn’t that much of a fan of the score samples at first, but as usual, a new Danny Elfman theme is now stuck in my head. “The future has arrived, the future has arrived to day-ay…”
Regardless of whether or not there are new Elfman themes in the movie, Danny should still be getting a “Themes by” credit, like John Williams in “Superman Returns.”
Off-topic side note: Speaking of John Williams, he’s conducting a film concert in May with the Boston Pops, and I live relatively close to Boston! I’m hoping my schedule will be good and that I’ll be able to find a companion who would appreciate it, because I’ve never heard film music performed live and the concert is supposed to focus on the “Harry Potter” scores, which I love.
What a day to not be at my computer until 8:00 at night. I appreciate everyone’s concern
Anyway, my ears are bleeding. The music had absolutely no substance or any sense of the sinister nature of a villain, just some frantic repetition. Plus, where Young should have made the obvious choice to imitate the Elfman sound (if he’s going to adapt his themes, he MUST adapt the sound, or else the sense of continuity between the films is lost), he instead somehow managed to imitate Don Davis — I feel like there were similar discussions when his “Runaway Train” cue was first heard. My concern for his adaptation of Danny’s original themes has increased even more considering the botching of the original Goblin theme into a cheap knockoff for the new Goblin. But I suppose I’ll just have to live with this for the whole movie, and considering how absolutely blown away I was with that fight scene, hopefully I’ll still walk away from the theater as thrilled as I was with the first two movies, albeit missing the emotions I felt after hearing the soaring music for Spider-Man’s swings.
Spider-Fan has spoken.
There’s going to be a one-minute “Spider-Man 3” clip shown during “Heroes” next Monday with a six-minute clip being streamed online immediately after. One would imagine that these clips will each feature at least some music, right? I feel like they wouldn’t use temp music this close to the release (as they did when the Doc Ock hospital scene from “Spider-Man 2” was first revealed at Comic Con using the Goblin theme long before the movie came out).
I was rooting for Javier Navarette’s “Pan’s Labyrinth.” It had structure and was pleasant to listen to, much unlike “Babel.”
First Danny said he’d never work with Sam Raimi ever again. Then, from Ryan, “I can now confirm: Elfman is writing new themes for SPIDER-MAN 3 and Chris Young will integrate the major themes from the first two pictures into his own score.” Now, again from Ryan, “Not at all anymore.”
I hope your clips are better, Ryan, because I can’t say I’m impressed by the ones on Filmtracks. I can see where the reviewer is coming from, because the clips do indeed sound like a compilation of Elfmanisms. Since Danny’s only other scheduled movie after this one is “The Kingdom,” which won’t come out until the end of the summer, in addition to the recent revelation that he’s no longer aboard “Spider-Man 3,” I need a morale boost.
I managed to rent the Babel DVD just in time to watch the whole thing before the Oscars. When I put it in my player and the menu came up playing the score, my mom in the room said, “that music is really annoying.” Later that night after Santaolalla won, I told her of this fact, and she was in disbelief. Of course, I felt the same way, but at least I prepared myself for it. At least there were some fair wins this year, but I still can never take the Oscars seriously.
I’m not really into classical music, but I work for a museum north of Boston and here’s one of our upcoming events that might appeal to some of you:
Boston Artists Ensemble
Friday, February 23, 8 pm
Shostakovitch’s Quartet No. 8 as well as Dvořák’s Quintet for String Quartet and Bass, in G, Opus 77. Back by popular demand—guess the composer and title of a mystery piece and win a pair of tickets.
I’ve always heard Danny was a fan of Shostakovitch, so I thought maybe that’s of interest on this here board.
The redesign is much nicer on the eyes. With the old look, my eyes could never properly adjust from the bright orange. This works much better!
Ryan’s words:
I can now confirm: Elfman is writing new themes for SPIDER-MAN 3 and Chris Young will integrate the major themes from the first two pictures into his own score,Young’s words:
All the themes for the new characters in this third movie, I am doing.Ummm… a little clarification, Ryan? And by the way, thanks for the heads-up, D-Bo.
Hmmm, tastes of “Nacho Libre” and the jazzy parts of “Corpse Bride.” That’s not really my favorite side of him, but I’m counting on hearing some great bombastic adventure cues in this score. Like when the “Charlotte’s Web” website went up with Danny’s music but without my favorite parts of the score, I’m sure there will be lots more in store for us.
