BigMacGyver

Soundtrack.net has a report from the sessions with Bill Conti. Glad to see he's back!

I agree completely but sadly, this is the social reality everyone has to face. Still, these box office figures are a valid indicator for the success of a film. Not for its quality but for its success and that's the only thing that studio bosses are concerned about, so Singer has good reasons to react that way because bad numbers are really bad news. It's that simple.

There was indeed rumours about expanded versions of both scores but these were supposed to be re-recordings. However, folks from Silva stated that such rumours are absolutely false. Of course, that must not mean there won't be some sort of new release by the time indy 4 comes out. Steven Spielberg has shown with the Amazing Stories releases that, if he takes initiative, anything can happen and I am sure he has a lot more interest in seeing an expanded release of TOD compared to Amazing Stories. One thing is for sure: It would be a big shame if this music would remain obscure due to the lack of sufficient releases.

There was this funny but noble woodwind melody when Chewbacca is running to that bait body in return of the jedi. Somehow, I always looked at this moment as a rudimentary motif for Chewie. Maybe an expansion of that idea in combination with a variation on the rebell fanfare (which I somehow always associated with Han) would make a nice Han and Chewbacca theme. The overall tone would be pretty interesting. A love theme or something heroic. Maybe both? LOL Maybe I will try that Han and Chewie thing. Could be a lot of fun. Problem is that there is no real moment in ep4 between these two characters that would make it necessary to have one theme focusing on both characters, which is, after all, the reason why Williams did not compose such a theme. My version would be solely inspired by how I think and feel about the relationship between Han and Chewie, which is hard because we never actually get to know much about that. According to books and stuff a friend of mine told me (he is an absolute star wars nerd) Chewie was a slave in some sort of imperial mine while Han was an imperial soldier (?) once but somehow they became friends and he rescued chewie from slavery. You know what's really funny about your topic? Today, I actually sat down and tried to come up with better musical ideas for the first pirates of the caribbean.

Doubtful. The long list of crappy films from Bruckheimer's factory speaks for itself.

I can't play this video. edit: works now. Okay, this is really sad. Still, I can not see why something like Pirates generates such an insane success. It's as if all Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom groupies united and boost this crap into box office heaven. Even the Star Wars prequels were left behind. All that means Bruckheimer will become even more powerful with his uniform into-your-face mtv movies. Good reason for Singer to stumble in shock.

People who like Zimmer's DMC music don't scare me and I say let them have it. Those who really believe that this stuff actually enhances the picture and that a John Williams score would not work give me the creeps.

I can't play your clip for whatever reason. But someone else posted a clip of the faulty version at intrada's board and I can assure you that the ticking does not appear in track 3 on my copy or anywhere else on the disc. What I can hear though is a very minor background hiss on some tracks but that also appears on the original. Again, I bought my copy from screen archives and that's by far no guarantee that all other retailers received copies from the corrected pressing, so you should still be careful where you buy it. For now, it seems like screen archives does not sell copies with the error, so this might be the safest retailer so far. If you are still unsure, wait for further confirmation from more people who bought the CD from other retailers.

Well, i can only comment on what I hear on the CD and there seems to be no noticeable error. I even compared the cues with my CD-r copy of the original release and the DVD score and the sound of the cues in question is basically identical. Maybe screen archives has only ordered the new pressing run with the postponed release date and thus wasn't aware of any changes that were made during the last delay.

I ran Maleficio through an eq and then listened to it on headphones. There is nothing to be found that should not be there originally. Really, if there is anything wrong with the track I just can't hear it. However, I don't understand this track index problem with Daryl's Secrets. Everything seems okay with these tracks.

I received a witches CD together with Breakheart Pass from screen archives last week and it sounds just fine to my ears.

John Williams does not need the academy or their lousy trophies (barely worth us-$ 300 - a copy of the burbs is worth more). He stands above the academy with a whole lot of exceptional scores that will remain in people's memories forever.

John Williams thinking about retirement? You can't be serious! He is just taking a year off from scoring films and doing some concert hall touring instead. Really, I don't see a problem. Silvestri fans had to wait 1 1/2 years between Polar Express and the Wild and Williams fans start worrying after only 6 months without a new score. Patience is a virtue. Relax, enjoy the scores we have and look forward to his indy 4 score coming in 2007. And by the way, there are just so many older Williams scores that have been re-released or received a premiere CD release recently (Amazing Stories, Mr. Chips, Checkmate, Lost In Space, Not With My Wive You Don't, The Witches of Eastwick) that one can hardly speak of a dry spell and we don't even know what else might be in the pipeline of some labels.

That Jim Dooley cue from Black Hawk Down (i think it's called Tribal War") has an appearance in this awful moonlight serenade cue. Bits of Drop Zone and Peacemaker are used throughout the action material. The theme is an odd combination of Peacemaker, Drop Zone and Gladiator. I am not going to waste any more thoughts on the embarrassing rest.

Someone I know even wanted to make it a 4-CD once but I don't know how it turned out. What bothers me about all bootlegs is the overall metallic dizzling sound quality and the obvious dvd rip volume drops during the ultimate war part 2 and 3. I mean if someone goes through the trouble of ripping this stuff almost sfx free why can't he just do the extra work of leveling the volume as well? The odd edits during the ultimate war part 1 are also a bit confusing because the shift in sound quality and volume is way too obvious.

Easy! Hans Zimmer. The immense and wide public appreciation this guy receives is just silly and frightening at the same time. Every kid seems to know him and everyone seems to like his stuff even if its miles away from good, effective film music (or music while we are at it). Good that there are people at least in the film music community like Christian Clemmensen who repeatedly point out what's wrong with the Zimmer-hype. My second choice is Brian Tyler. I have heard nothing outstanding from this guy but the praise for him in the film music community seems widely spread. Then, there is michael giacchino. He is a newcomer and produces some really solid work but I don't hear that much outstanding ideas or a strong musical identity that would make him worth of the praise he received recently. Maybe people are just glad that he can handle an orchestra really well and that he isn't connected with the remote control assembly line. Okay, and even if I will catch a lot of flack with my following comment, but I think Goldsmith can be quite overrated as well. He did lots of outstanding scores but a string of real bad ones as well.

There are only few instances where I educate folks during a harmless conversation. Recently, a colleague asked me who that person on my working pc's desktop background is (I have the great williams painting up) and I replied: It's John Williams, the guy who composed Jaws, Star Wars, War Of The Worlds (to mention a more recent example) and all spielberg films. He stumbled something like: "But... but... Hans Zimmer did... did... I thought..." I guess he wanted to connect Zimmer with Spielberg or one of the films I mentioned, which was where I interrupted him and destroyed his illusions by saying just: "No!" He quickly got out of it by asking me more about Hans Zimmer. That was one of the few instances where I kind of really educated someone.

I have tried to fit all original material (including alternates, etc) Goldsmith composed for alien that can be found on the iso-score track onto one disc but it does not work (even though i did not include the two other different takes of the landing). If they make it a single disc release then something has to be left off and if that happens, some fans will surely end up largely disappointed.

Maybe you should actually read what the box is all about before making any quick assumptions. Not all of the CDs are Bernstein scores. Instead, it is a series of re-recordings financed and executed by Elmer during the 70's of several classic scores that he found are worth preserving. A lot of classics are featured in this set and its not just all Bernstein.

Well, I have the iso-score DVD but a nice 2-CD set for the jerry CD collection would still be welcome. However, folks don't get your hopes up too much for the next Club CD batch. After the excellence of the last batch which incluced one of the most requested scores ever with Ghostbusters, they might just give us some not-so-mindblowing scores this time. Maybe still a Goldsmith title since Bob Townson stated that Goldsmith will receive one more entry in the CD Club this year. Boys From Brazil has been traded as a likely candidate.

I dare to predict that this biggie will be around for a while despite all the pre-order hype surrounding it. But I have to have Kings Of The Sun, so there is no way around this box.

One of my last hopes for great film music is Alan Silvestri. His Polar Express is among the most entertaining scores of the new millenium and a great christmas score while Van Helsing is packed with great ideas and the perfect creative answer to media ventures action-autopilot sound. He just does not do enough films anymore to really shine. The Wild was cool and often "big and brassy" but kind of overlooked. Next big hope is James Newton Howard for sure. Great suspense scores and cool action stuff. Lady In The Water could be great but Freedomland was awfully close to media ventures laziness after he pulled off the King Kong replacement score with surprising success. I guess those two are my biggest hope right now. James Horner continues to come up with quality work that isn't all that exchangeable anymore as it used to be 10 years ago but also does not involve me that much. David Newman can write truly great music but for some reason, he choose not to do so for Serenity. John Powell surprised me with X-3 while Harry Gregson-Williams kind of disappionted me with Kingdom Of Heaven and Narnia. What they have achieved is amazing considering their media ventures roots but they are far away from composing masterpieces. Howard Shore composed outstanding epic LOTR scores but his other output is rather flat. I am also a bit worried but as long as Silvestri and Howard are still around and working there will be something to look forward to.

That Variety reviewer successfully disqualified himself. Pretty embarrassing.

It would be really great if a passionate Bernard Herrmann collector can compile a list with CDs that contain original recordings of Herrmann's music. So far I only own 2 Herrmann scores (North by Northwest and beneath the 12 mile reef) and would like to explore more but I am not a fan of re-recordings or compilations, so a list of available original recordings would allow me to cherry pick what interests me. I only know about these scores being available as original recordings: North by Northwest (have that) Beneath the 12 mile reef (have that, too) Journey to the Center of the Earth The Day the Earth stood still The Wrong Man On Dangerous Ground Joy In The Morning Taxi Driver Blue Denim The Egyptian I guess there must be more. Is it correct that the orginal recordings of psycho have never ever seen a CD release?

Okay this sci-fi film is still some years away but it sounds like a cool opportunity for Williams to revisit outer space musically with something that isn't Star Wars or fantasy but actual science-fiction. If I remember correctly, the only comparable flick he ever did along that lines was Spacecamp which was rather troubled but this is going to be a Spielberg film, so fingers crossed that Williams is still around when the film goes into post production.