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Who should Score Peter Jackson's Mortal Engines?


leeallen01

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On 3/7/2018 at 10:28 PM, Jay said:

I think it is rude to Christian Rivers to call this "Peter Jackson's" Mortal Engines

 

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A few of the mid-point action sequences in JNH's score feel a bit rough to me, but most of the score (and everything on the album) is quite astounding given how little time he had.

 

I also got the impression from interviews at the time (including the video diaries) that he enjoyed the film - that's got to help in situations like that.

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It will be interesting to hear how the NZSO sound with Junkie XL's scoring style compared with Howard Shore's who wrote specifically FOR them. We'll probably get a BOFTA-like scoring mix with an electronic bombastic percussion flavour!

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15 hours ago, Jay said:

 

Rivers was a storyboard artist and visual effects supervisor for most of Jackson’s films; and Jackson is writing the film. Pretty sure he’ll be directing behind the scenes. 

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19 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Some of the sequences, especially the dinosaur stampede, is absolutely cringe-worthy. And some of the special effects are just too overloaded. Peter Jackson has still not learned when less is more.

 

Well, ROTK surely suffers from this and Shore worked out fin in this.

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On 4.6.2018 at 1:16 AM, LOTRHobbitFan said:

My guess is Junkie XL after Conrad Pope wrote he has just finished conducting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for the composer's upcoming knockout score. There is only one director who would use NZSO for his movies. The relationship with Howard Shore is clearly over.

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10214992927929607&id=1621614403

Junkie XL and a knockout score in the same sentence seems too good to be true. An unlikely pairing I'd say.

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I can agree with this view, but that doesn't stop me from being let down by the scores to TTT and RotK. But I guess when the score to FOTR was so darn good it was unrealistic to expect Shore to follow up with just as high quality.

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1 hour ago, Arpy said:

I've never tried to pit the LOTR scores against one another, I've always viewed them as one whole piece, varied by their textures and themes, but as a whole.

To be honest, I see all six as such.

 

Karol

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1 hour ago, Richard said:

That's because, IMO, they are. I'm not sure exactly how Shore composed them, but I'd be surprised if he didn't conceive the whole thing as one piece of work, and not three.

 

He explicitly did: he always talked about them as three "parts" of a grand opera.

 

The practical implications is that, having the book, and all three scripts to hand and having seen footage from all three films, he wrote and introduced, in The Fellowship of the Ring, themes that don't have much bearing upon the story of that film, on its own, such as the Gondor and Minas Tirith themes.

 

Another composer, say, Horner (Jackson's first choice) probably wouldn't have done that. He would just use whatever themes each individual film would have justified.

 

So yeah, I would say the trilogy or really the entire sextet is of a piece.

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It would probably just have been Braveheart 2.00 (or 2.50, if you count Titanic), which I probably would have enjoyed.

 

But it wouldn't be anywhere near what it is, true. Horner's Middle Earth would most probably have included:

  1. His trademark "danger" devices all over the place (especially for the Orcs), both the original three-note one, and the two-note brass one from Braveheart.
  2. Uileann Pipes for the Shire, of course.
  3. Anvils everywhere! :lol:

 

It should be said however that The Lord of the Rings was temp-tracked with a fair bit of Bravheart anyway.

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8 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

 Pretty sure he’ll be directing behind the scenes. 

 

Now that's INCREDIBLY disrespectful to Christian Rivers.

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3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Anvils everywhere! :lol:

 

Have you heard Shore's Isengard material? ;)

 

(Of course it fits there and Horner would have overused it, this was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.)

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1 hour ago, Holko said:

Have you heard Shore's Isengard material? ;)

 

(Of course it fits there and Horner would have overused it, this was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.)

I remember seeing in The Lord of the Rings Symphony special that it was honestly a tuned sheet of metal and a hammer of some sort. 

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39 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

that it was honestly a tuned sheet of metal and a hammer of some sort

 

Those would be bell plates, which are also used along with (not instead of) the anvil.

 

In the symphony the anvil is often a brake-drum, railroad track or a special orchestral anvil rather than a blacksmith's anvil.

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And chains beating the strings of open grand pianos.

I specifically remember Shore mentioning anvils in the Appendices, but he may have referred to what's happening onscreen, not the actual instrumentation. Apparently a yearly watch is not enough of these.

 

Yeah, OK, I'm not misremembering then.

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Yeah, although again in live performances you often get variations on this: usually they replace the grand piano with an upright piano or even remove the guts of the piano altogether and strike those directly. He also uses all sorts of taiko drums (sometimes, more than one simultaneously), and some of the variations of the Isengard material also feature tamtams.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm not going to throw Junkie under the bus, but it's disappointing news. Like Ramin Djawadi, I think Junkie works under the right conditions, but there are times he just doesn't fit.

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Actually I don't mind this as I think he can produce some great tunes that works well in a movie. However, it all depends on what the filmmaker wants. I regularly look at his vlogs on youtube and for exemple for TR, the studio didn't want anything else than sound design.

 

 

And on regular occasions, it's the director's call.

 

 

 

I would realy like a director to ask him to do an orchestral 80's score, that'd be interesting :)

 

Bonus video :

 

 

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I am really pro electronic artists venturing over into filmscoreland, but in sharp contrast to, i. e., Daft Punk, XL's contributions amount by and large to brutish noise or third-rate orchestral writing for which he seems to have no feeling, whatsoever. I doubt even given the opportunity much would come of it.

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Great choice! JXL is one of the best around. I haven't liked everything he's done (and prefer him when he's more electronic, like the drop dead gorgeous DISTANCE BETWEEN DREAMS), but the talent and diversity in his output is stunning. He's managed to secure a place in my Top 10 list of the year THREE times in just the last few years (FURY ROAD, DISTANCE and BRIMSTONE, respectively). Bring on MORTAL ENGINES!

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  • 2 months later...

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