An Insider's View of Hans Zimmer

[indy4 155]

Somebody on FSM just posted this very interesting account of Zimmer from one of his former collaborators.

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=97421&forumID=1&archive=0

Copied from VI Control Forum. Thought it might serve as a dose of reality here.


Why HZ got the Job, and you didn't
Posted: Today at 12:35 am
I saw this on a fellow composers face book and googled it and found it on hz's webbie. I don't know if its original to there, and forgive me if this is not new, but I think to offers lots of insights for film composers.

Here's a LENGTHY messaged posted by composer/musician Michael A. Levine, who worked at RCP :

"Why Hans Zimmer Got The Job You Wanted (And You Didn't)

I worked for Hans Zimmer for about 8 years, 5 of which were in a studio at Remote Control, his facility in Santa Monica. Since leaving Remote, many people have said to me, usually in a conspiratorial tone of voice, things like this: Hans doesn't really write his own music. The studios only give him work because he's famous. He's not a real musician. He just gets his clients drunk and all the work is done by guys in the back room. And so forth.

The underlying implication is that this underhanded semi-musician has Hollywood in his thrall due to Svengali like powers and maybe, someday, they'll wake up and hire a "real" composer - like whoever is whispering to me.

No other composer seems to stir up this kind of ire - I never hear people say, "Yeah, that John Williams only writes 12-line sketches and it's up to his orchestrators to make it into real music!"

Well, I hate to break it to you, but Hans gets what he gets because…he deserves it.

Here is why:

1) HANS IS A VISIONARY. In films there is a process called "spotting" in which the composer and director decide what kind of music is needed where. Hans is the best spotter I've ever observed. He has an extraordinary sense of what will work. But long before spotting, he will spend weeks writing a musical suite which is the source of the musical themes of the film. Oddly, this isn't really about music - it's about the essence of what the story and the characters are. Film composer great Elmer Bernstein (Magnificent Seven, To Kill A Mockingbird) once said to me, "The dirty little secret is that we're not musicians - we're dramatists." Hans is an outstanding dramatist.

But he also fearlessly pushes himself, challenging the limits of what is acceptable in our medium. In Batman: Dark Knight, long before we had footage of the film, Hans asked Heitor Pereira (guitar), Martin Tillman (cello), and me (violin and tenor violin) to separately record some variations on a set of instructions involving 2 notes, C and D. This involved a fair amount of interpretation! For those who are familiar with classical music, it was John Cage meets Phil Glass. We each spent a week making hundreds of snippets. Then we had to listen to each other's work and re-interpret that. The end result was a toolbox of sounds that provided Hans with the attitude of his score.

Later, he asked me to double every ostinato (repeating phrase) pattern the violins and violas played. There were a LOT. And a great studio orchestra had already played them all! I spent a week on what I considered an eccentric fool's errand, providing score mixer, Alan Meyerson, with single, double, and triple pass versions of huge swaths of the score. Months later, I joked with him about how "useful" my efforts had been. Alan told me that, actually, they had turned out to be a crucial element of the score, that he often pulled out the orchestra and went to my performances when something needed to be edgy or raw.

The attached video shows something from Man of Steel. Hans assembled a room full of great trap drummers to play the same groove at the same time, each with tiny variations. Is it a stunt? Maybe. But does it deliver a sound you've never quite heard before? Definitely.

2) HANS WORKS VERY, VERY HARD. When working on a project - which is most of the time - Hans usually arrives at the studio at 11 am and then works until 3 or 4 in the morning. 7 days a week. For months. As the deadline approaches, everything else fades away. Harry Gregson-Williams once told me you could tell how far into a project Hans was by the length of his beard - at some point, he stops shaving.

His late-night hours provide welcome relief from badgering studios and the noise of running a business. They proved to be a challenge to my metabolism when I was getting up at 6 a.m. to go to yoga. Which leads me to a the title of another post, "Never Keep Different Hours Than Your Boss." But I digress.

Hans is not as fast as his one-time assistant, Harry, or his current go-to arranger, Loren Balfe, both of whom work at superhuman speed. Hans once suggested that I worked too fast. I was puzzled at the time, but what I think he was really saying was that I needed to pay better attention to the little details that, cumulatively, make all the difference.

3) HANS IS THE BEST FILM MUSIC PRODUCER IN THE BUSINESS. We're not talking about technical music skills. Hans is a so-so pianist and guitarist and his knowledge of academic theory is, by intention, limited. (I was once chastised while working on The Simpsons Movie for saying "lydian flat 7" instead of "the cartoon scale.") He doesn't read standard notation very well, either. But no one reads piano roll better than he does. [The piano roll is a page of a music computer program that displays the notes graphically.] Which gets to the heart of the matter: Hans knows what he needs to know to make it sound great.

Sometimes, that is the right musicians. Sometimes it is the right sample library. Sometimes it is the right room, or engineer, or recording technique, or mixing technique. All that counts is the end result. And it always sounds spectacular.

4) HANS WORKS WITH GREAT PEOPLE. Take a look at the composers who have worked for Hans: John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams, Heitor Pereira, Henry Jackman, Steve Jablonsky, Lorne Balfe, Trevor Morris, Ramin Djawadi, Jeff Rona, Mark Mancina, Atli Orvarsson, Geoff Zanelli, Blake Neeley, Stephen Hilton, Tom "Junkie XL" Holkenborg and on and on. And Alan Meyerson, his mixer. And Bob Badami, Ken Karman, his music editors. (Bob's credits alone dwarf about everybody in the business). His great percussionists, Satnam Ramgotra and Ryeland Allison. Sound designers, Howard Scarr and Mel Wesson. Not to mention Steve Kofsky, his business partner. And all the tech whizzes he's had over the years: Mark Wherry, Sam Estes, Pete Snell, Tom Broderick. Even his personal assistants - Andrew Zack, then Czar Russell - are remarkable.

Of course, the really amazing talents are the ones he works for: Chris Nolan, Gore Verbinski, Jim Brooks, Ron Howard, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Jerry Bruckheimer. But he would never get the chance to work for them if he didn't hold up his end of the bargain.

5) HANS IS A CHARMER. The first time Jeffrey Katzenberg heard Hans' love theme for Megamind he said, "It sounds like 1968 on the French Riviera." It was not a compliment. And it wasn't wrong. Actually, what Hans realized - and Jeffrey hadn't - was that the heart of the love story in the movie was right out of A Man and A Woman and La Nouvelle Vague. Rather than point this out, Hans said, "Let me work on it some more." Over the next two weeks he played revision after revision for Jeffrey, each time making small changes to the arrangement or structure, but keeping the same basic tune. A couple of weeks later, after Jeffrey tore apart the music for a different scene that we'd worked pretty hard on, he said, "Well, at least we have a great love theme!" The rest of us looked at each other. When did that happen!

Hans is acutely aware of the presentational aspect of our business. His capacious control room, rather than being the strictly functional wood and bland fabric of a typical studio, is a lurid red velvet - a 19th century Turkish bordello as Hans describes it. With a wall of rare analog modular synthesizers in the back. At dinner, he serves his guests fine wine, and gives others cleverly appropriate (more so than lavish) gifts. As one of his clients said to me, "Hans makes you feel like a great chef is inviting you into his kitchen."

Not all of us can afford HZ level dog and pony shows. But most of us can use what we do have better.

6) HANS DELIVERS. Hans often gets hired for massive projects. The reason he uses an army of people is that he needs them to keep up with the demands of the directors and the studios. Halfway through Rango, Gore Verbinski suddenly changed direction, threw almost everything out, and we started over. Without a team to carry out the new directions, we'd have been dead.

Look at what happened to Howard Shore on King Kong, Marc Shaiman on Team America, Maurice Jarre on River Wild, Gabriel Yared on Troy, or the great Bernard Herrmann on Torn Curtain? In each case they were fired because the studio or director lost faith that they could shift direction quickly enough once their original approach was rejected. In 150+ films this has never happened to Hans.

BTW, he is also very aware of what the power structure is - who really makes decisions. I was fired - or more accurately not hired after a trial period - from a film because I jumped through hoops for the director who had hired me while not spending enough time figuring out what the producer - the actual power - wanted. Rather than being sympathetic, Hans told me I had failed in a fundamental task: determining who was my boss. He was right, and I haven't made that mistake again.

So, is Hans my favorite film composer? No. He's not even Hans' favorite film composer! (I'm guessing that would be Nina Rota or Ennio Morricone, but you'd have to ask him.) And he can be dismissive, condescending, arrogant, exploitative, and just plain mean. Like me. And, I suspect, you.

But he is exceptionally smart, gifted, accomplished, and hard-working. And here is the hard truth: outside of a few rare exceptions, the people who are successful in the film business are successful because they deserve to be. They have earned it. Yes, they have been lucky. But everybody gets lucky eventually. The question is what do you do when good fortune arrives. If you want to be as successful as the people you admire, you need to be as smart, resourceful, and determined as they are. As Hans is."

_________________
Stuart Kollmorgen
Composer/Creative Director Big Yellow Duck
BigYellowDuck.com

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Interesting read. Thanks for the post.

[mrbellamy 6,287]

Thanks for the post, some cool anecdotes in there about his process.

I have to say, though, obviously plenty criticize Zimmer's music, but are there really that many people out there slamming his personality, work ethic, and/or professional skills? I admit I don't frequent the forum where it was originally posted, maybe they resort to mean-spirited personal attacks more frequently over there, but I don't see much of that here. I can't imagine why any reasonable detractor of Zimmer's would deny that he seems like a decent, hard-working person.

[publicist 4,643]

If only it would result in better music. Over the years, several flunkies of his gave interviews to the effect that the issue is the music factory and the film music coming out of it is actually as the great as can be - which tells me they either are too daft to see the difference to a well-written score or just duck the issue.

[Quintus 5,399]

Hans Zimmer is the Devil incarnate!

[Incanus 5,715]

Hans Zimmer is the Devil incarnate!

Thank you Quint for finally daring to say out loud what we all think!

[publicist 4,643]

Hans Zimmer is the Devil incarnate!

The music should have more spice, then.

[Thor 7,508]

It's a great post by Mr. Levine, and as I've said elsewhere, it reflects many of my own thoughts on the man and his music -- only as an outsider, not an insider. Zimmer remains one of my top favourite composers for many of those reasons (and others).

[Quintus 5,399]

Isn't the silly idea that Hans has an army of people doing all the work for him an open joke anyway? I've always dismissed that nonsense, but do others really believe it to be the case?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

From this, I learned that Zimmer berates his staff and collaborators for using proper musical terminology and for knowing what they're talking about. Such professionalism.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[crocodile 8,017]

Interesting read. Not sure how that makes him all that great, though. Every above average composer is capable of this.

Karol

[fommes 153]

An excellent read. Ironically though, Levine means to write a defence for Zimmer, but largely it has the effect of confirming many of the criticisms on the man. A dose of reality indeed

[publicist 4,643]

Isn't the silly idea that Hans has an army of people doing all the work for him an open joke anyway?

Phrased differently it makes sense: Hans works a lot, but the result seldom is a score which normal musicians can play, a problem he addressed himself and which makes it inevitable that he has trained musicians around him to help him transfer whatever he bangs into Cubase into a playable condensed score.

Zimmer is successful business man, period. Musically, you are allowed to shake your head how many people (and money) it takes to produce a snoozer like MOS.

[Ollie 1,059]

I may not care for Zimmer's music but I'm not going to accuse him of not working hard or sitting back without lifting a finger.

I'm glad that someone took the time to educate us and let us know that no other composer works as hard as Hans does or is as creative or innovative as he apparently is.

Would he like a cookie now?

[publicist 4,643]

A major scoring gig, perhaps? Producing a cookie-cutter sound-alike for TRANSFORMERS 4?

[karelm 2,914]

Publicist, I like your style. Personally, I think Levine is just drinking the RC coolaid a bit too much and full of self congratulatory statements to Zimmer and the projects he himself had a hand in. Yes, yes, I get these films make billions of dollars but Levine is wrong that Zimmer is a brilliant spotter - he's famously bad. The easy proof of this is how you can swap out the scores for his films and they are mostly indistinguishable provided they are overall in the same genre (you can't replace a quirky character drama with a blockbuster but you can replace "Inception" with "Batman" with "Man of Steel") which shows them not to be custom tailored as Levine says. I don't think he understands what real composers (Goldsmith, Williams, Goldenthal) really do and how they approach spotting and their craft because his experience is limited to the RC but I'll grant he probably makes millions more than I do and has his belief system reinforced therefor thinks he's right. Basically, he thinks he's right because this factory turns out more scores than anyone else and does have big budget films all over their roster...big, bad films mostly (Transformers).

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I may not care for Zimmer's music but I'm not going to accuse him of not working hard or sitting back without lifting a finger.

I'm glad that someone took the time to educate us and let us know that no other composer works as hard as Hans does or is as creative or innovative as he apparently is.

Would he like a cookie now?

Levine isn't saying any of this. He tells you what he's addressing in the beginning of the post.

Publicist, I like your style. Personally, I think Levine is just drinking the RC coolaid a bit too much and full of self congratulatory statements to Zimmer and the projects he himself had a hand in. Yes, yes, I get these films make billions of dollars but Levine is wrong that Zimmer is a brilliant spotter - he's famously bad. The easy proof of this is how you can swap out the scores for his films and they are mostly indistinguishable provided they are overall in the same genre (you can't replace a quirky character drama with a blockbuster but you can replace "Inception" with "Batman" with "Man of Steel") which shows them not to be custom tailored as Levine says. I don't think he understands what real composers (Goldsmith, Williams, Goldenthal) really do and how they approach spotting and their craft because his experience is limited to the RC but I'll grant he probably makes millions more than I do and has his belief system reinforced therefor thinks he's right. Basically, he thinks he's right because this factory turns out more scores than anyone else and does have big budget films all over their roster...big, bad films mostly (Transformers).

Except that those scores are as indistinguishable as Star Wars, Superman, and Indiana Jones are from each other. They exist within the same musical style but with their own themes and motifs. Inception, in particular, is heavily catered to its film.

[Quintus 5,399]

Anyway, Lorne Balfe is a terrific composer. I'd be happy for him to work with anyone, let alone Zimmer. He should be fast-tracked to bigger projects.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Indeed.

[karelm 2,914]

I may not care for Zimmer's music but I'm not going to accuse him of not working hard or sitting back without lifting a finger.

I'm glad that someone took the time to educate us and let us know that no other composer works as hard as Hans does or is as creative or innovative as he apparently is.

Would he like a cookie now?

Levine isn't saying any of this. He tells you what he's addressing in the beginning of the post.

Publicist, I like your style. Personally, I think Levine is just drinking the RC coolaid a bit too much and full of self congratulatory statements to Zimmer and the projects he himself had a hand in. Yes, yes, I get these films make billions of dollars but Levine is wrong that Zimmer is a brilliant spotter - he's famously bad. The easy proof of this is how you can swap out the scores for his films and they are mostly indistinguishable provided they are overall in the same genre (you can't replace a quirky character drama with a blockbuster but you can replace "Inception" with "Batman" with "Man of Steel") which shows them not to be custom tailored as Levine says. I don't think he understands what real composers (Goldsmith, Williams, Goldenthal) really do and how they approach spotting and their craft because his experience is limited to the RC but I'll grant he probably makes millions more than I do and has his belief system reinforced therefor thinks he's right. Basically, he thinks he's right because this factory turns out more scores than anyone else and does have big budget films all over their roster...big, bad films mostly (Transformers).

Except that those scores are as indistinguishable as Star Wars, Superman, and Indiana Jones are from each other. They exist within the same musical style but with their own themes and motifs. Inception, in particular, is heavily catered to its film.

Inception is not at all well spotted. I think what you mean is that the concept of the Inception score is related to the concept of the film in a fascinating way (and I'll grant that) which is not what I'm saying regarding its poor spotting. Examples of poor spotting is nonstop music that pays little attention to the drama of the scene, the dialog, the cadence of the scene, etc. It's actually quite bad so much so this is a characteristic tendency of Zimmer favors "drop ins" where the director will have access to various moods and use where they want rather than how Goldsmith as an example would approach it.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Everything I read above is typical fluff that would be found on a typical CV... works hard... visionary... works great with people.

In other words, traits I'd mostly expect to see in any composer. If you think this is somehow proof of Zimmer's genius Koray, try again.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Who said anything about genius? Who said anything about being better than other composers? Levine says he's been approached about widespread rumors about Zimmer's studio and his work ethic. He then explained why those allegations are not true at all.

[gkgyver 1,645]

1) HANS IS A VISIONARY. In films there is a process called "spotting" in which the composer and director decide what kind of music is needed where. Hans is the best spotter I've ever observed.

Observe more, dude.

Zimmer's most recent output has some of the worst spotting I've ever heard.

Excuse me for oversimplifying, but working at Remote Control for a few years doesn't make you an insider with a more objective view on Zimmer, it makes you one of the hacks who think they're doing "visionary" (muahahaha) music, and are therefor anything but objective.

[publicist 4,643]

It's called plastering now.

[Quintus 5,399]

Maybe he gets plastered first.

[Jay 37,368]

Shouldn't be be more up to the director than the composer on where the music starts and stops?

[gkgyver 1,645]

Look at what happened to Howard Shore on King Kong, Marc Shaiman on Team America, Maurice Jarre on River Wild, Gabriel Yared on Troy, or the great Bernard Herrmann on Torn Curtain? In each case they were fired because the studio or director lost faith that they could shift direction quickly enough once their original approach was rejected. In 150+ films this has never happened to Hans.

Wow. That's basically a slap in the face of some great composers. Great. Yeah, Jarre, Yared, Shore and co are incapable of adapting to what a director is asking of them...

Zimmer is hired because he produces a certain sound that always sounds the same. Therefor, the process of "adapting to directors" is rather limited. And they know it.

[Wojo 2,453]

No. The director's needs are secondary to those audience members who require classic, symphonic film scores to hear onscreen and then hoard in their collections.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

(Jay) Not if you ask Benny...

Who said anything about genius? Who said anything about being better than other composers? Levine says he's been approached about widespread rumors about Zimmer's studio and his work ethic. He then explained why those allegations are not true at all.

I'm not disputing his work ethic; merely why he insists on using additional composers so much. That guy's reasoning is that it allows quick changes of direction if the production goes tits-up, which is hardly routine.

Also...

Is it a stunt? Maybe. But does it deliver a sound you've never quite heard before? Definitely.

Ermm, how about it doesn't? Most composers don't need a stunt.

[publicist 4,643]

I'm not disputing his work ethic; merely why he insists on using additional composers so much.

Would you morelike it if he did all those RCP scores alone? Would they become the pinnacle of filmscores then?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I don't care who wrote what as long the music is good and does its job. Mark's newfound appreciation of Rango would probably decrease if he knew how all that music is broken down

Maybe he gets plastered first.

Powell said he found Hans drunk on the floor while scoring a film. I can't remember which one, but he told him he wrote that one good tune in Backdraft and that got him going again.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Powell said he found Hans drunk on the floor while scoring a film

Well, that explains a lot...

[gkgyver 1,645]

Drunk from his own greatness he means!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Shouldn't be be more up to the director than the composer on where the music starts and stops?

It's a part of the composer's job, but yes everything is ultimately up to the director. It's funny that karelm mentions 3 Nolan-produced Zimmer scores as examples of how he's a bad spotter.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[karelm 2,914]

Shouldn't be be more up to the director than the composer on where the music starts and stops?

This is not the strength of directors. They do have to sign off on the decision and are the ultimate boss, but they generally do not have this keen sense. Perfect example: Hitchcock wanting no music in the murder scene where Bennie said it would add to the sense of horror. Second perfect example: Hitch not wanting any music at all in the early film "Lifeboat" because he felt it would take people out of the film. "Where would the orchestra be coming from in the middle of the ocean?" At it's best, spotting is collaborative where the composer and director are greater than the sum of their parts, but this is rare. A stroke of genius spotting is Goldsmith's Patton. The use of silence and music is really good there. I also think "Out of Africa" was brilliantly spotted. The function of the music and the power it has in saying what the characters want to say without words. Too many examples of great spotting to lump HZ in this list. He's example of poor spotting and its most obtrusive, least skilled, and for Levine to think it good - really just shows how little he knows about good spotting.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It's funny that Levine doesn't give any example of a well spotted film/score by Zimmer...

Well if you're so interested in his opinion why don't you ask him?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Koray Savas 2,251]

You just made a comment about his post, insinuating that he doesn't provide any examples of things he claims. Obviously a cheap follow-up to my post, but why even bother posting if you're not interested?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

Oi! Stop moving the goal posts!

[karelm 2,914]

I may not care for Zimmer's music but I'm not going to accuse him of not working hard or sitting back without lifting a finger.

I'm glad that someone took the time to educate us and let us know that no other composer works as hard as Hans does or is as creative or innovative as he apparently is.

Would he like a cookie now?

Levine isn't saying any of this. He tells you what he's addressing in the beginning of the post.

Publicist, I like your style. Personally, I think Levine is just drinking the RC coolaid a bit too much and full of self congratulatory statements to Zimmer and the projects he himself had a hand in. Yes, yes, I get these films make billions of dollars but Levine is wrong that Zimmer is a brilliant spotter - he's famously bad. The easy proof of this is how you can swap out the scores for his films and they are mostly indistinguishable provided they are overall in the same genre (you can't replace a quirky character drama with a blockbuster but you can replace "Inception" with "Batman" with "Man of Steel") which shows them not to be custom tailored as Levine says. I don't think he understands what real composers (Goldsmith, Williams, Goldenthal) really do and how they approach spotting and their craft because his experience is limited to the RC but I'll grant he probably makes millions more than I do and has his belief system reinforced therefor thinks he's right. Basically, he thinks he's right because this factory turns out more scores than anyone else and does have big budget films all over their roster...big, bad films mostly (Transformers).

Except that those scores are as indistinguishable as Star Wars, Superman, and Indiana Jones are from each other. They exist within the same musical style but with their own themes and motifs. Inception, in particular, is heavily catered to its film.

You think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Superman are interchangeable with each other? So the Indy score could have been used in Star Wars and worked just as well?

My point is simple - Levine's premise is wrong. Why HZ got the Job is for one reason - he's a better businessman. That is a valid point and can't be debated. Saying he's a great spotter, genius at this or that is nonsense spewed by a star struck person who drinks the RC cool aid - Mr. Levine.

[Quintus 5,399]

I've just been having the same convo with my brother. Zimmer is, by and large, wholly interchangeable. Williams and his generation (tradition) never were, ever. There's a huge gulf there, a rift.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

You're all stupid.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

No, you're just condescending to anyone criticising Zimmer. We're all 'narrow-minded'.

My point is simple - Levine's premise is wrong. Why HZ got the Job is for one reason - he's a better businessman. That is a valid point and can't be debated. Saying he's a great spotter, genius at this or that is nonsense spewed by a star struck person who drinks the RC cool aid - Mr. Levine.

This.

[karelm 2,914]

You're all stupid.

Well, we can disagree. Please don't forget forum rule # 1.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

No, you're just condescending to anyone criticising Zimmer. We're all 'narrow-minded'.

My point is simple - Levine's premise is wrong. Why HZ got the Job is for one reason - he's a better businessman. That is a valid point and can't be debated. Saying he's a great spotter, genius at this or that is nonsense spewed by a star struck person who drinks the RC cool aid - Mr. Levine.

This.

Yep, because you can stick The Simpsons Movie into fucking Gladiator and it'd work perfectly. Interchangeable my ass. This is the type of BS I addressed in my Top 10 thread. People think the only Zimmer scores are the huge blockbuster ones.

[karelm 2,914]

No, you're just condescending to anyone criticising Zimmer. We're all 'narrow-minded'.

My point is simple - Levine's premise is wrong. Why HZ got the Job is for one reason - he's a better businessman. That is a valid point and can't be debated. Saying he's a great spotter, genius at this or that is nonsense spewed by a star struck person who drinks the RC cool aid - Mr. Levine.

This.

Yep, because you can stick The Simpsons Movie into fucking Gladiator and it'd work perfectly. Interchangeable my ass. This is the type of BS I addressed in my Top 10 thread. People think the only Zimmer scores are the huge blockbuster ones.

That's why I said: "you can't replace a quirky character drama with a blockbuster". My point remains. HZ is not just a bad spotter...he's a case study in bad spotting. Claiming, as the article does, that he's a visionary with "extraordinary" sense is nonsense.