WampaRat

I remember first hearing his work on Little Big Planet and wondering “who is this guy?” Super zany and creative yet tuneful, like early Elfman.
 
My son loves this piece Pemberton wrote for a British documentary series about moving monumental objects lol. 
I dare you to not whistle this once it’s over. Catchy as hell.
 
 

I know there’s a million custom Indy covers. But I made these with the brilliant artwork by Tony Stella. I love the paperback dime novel feel of these. (Sorry he hasn’t created artwork for Crystal Skull 😜) I think they’d make great LP covers too.

My riff on the Patriot Cover:

 

No worries. There’s seriously too many great options to choose from with those illustrations. I’m partial to the one of him flying away on the biplane too! Mabye I’ll make some alternates after the holidays. 
Made these from the Mike Ferguson poster series:
 

Here’s Great circle. 

Shared these on the Indy thread. Custom covers I made from illustrator Robert Watts’ Indy depictions. Only a few of his scenes are directly taken from the films. Most are from his imagination. So I went for what felt right if a direct depiction didn’t exist. Working on one for Great Circle currently. 

Anyone ever listen to this or watch the mini series back in the day? It’s a trip.  There’s some cool tones in here that I could picture a more adventurous Nolan allowing Ludwig to pursue. The main theme is really lovely. (The last four tracks are a really nice). But it’s certainly a very 90s mishmash of Vangelis and Eric Serra in some of the more grating parts.
 
Im eager to hear what Ludwig comes up with. I hope it’s got a lot of personality whatever it ends up sounding like. And it ends up being used as temp track for  the following decade 😉
 
 

Yeah he was very well off at my current age. I’m not bitter lol.
The dude has earned it! 

Oh I know..

😉

Complete with watermark?

Oh I know..

😉

No Hope starring WampaRat. 

Wait until you are older than John Williams was when he did Star Wars in 77.

Earn this, WampaRat!

You just need to work harder. 
 

But he got to be wealthy at WampaRat's age too. It's just not fair!!

May I suggest a few John Powell scores if you want to know him more?
Face/Off (1997): His first big budget movie as a solo composer. It's more in the style of the Media Ventures action music of the time (The Rock, The Peacemaker, etc.) than the style he'd later be better known for, but it's nice to know where he came from. Endurance (1998): Underrated score with African elements for a forgotten movie. Antz (1998): The first of the three collaborations he did with Harry Gregson-Williams for DreamWorks animated movies. Pretty fun! The Road to El Dorado (2000): Theoretically co-composed with Hans Zimmer, but Powell's own voice is beginning to shine through. Saving Eldo is a highlight. Just skip the Elton John songs. Chicken Run (2000): Second animation he did with Harry Gregson-Williams, and probably the best of the three. Shrek (2000): Last animation he scored alongside HGW, but this time the latter did most of the work (Powell fought with the producers and was blacklisted by DreamWorks for 7 years). I'm pretty sure the cue for when Shrek and Donkey are flying on the dragon to stop the wedding is by Powell, though! Evolution (2001): Pretty fun action comedy score. The biggest highlight here is Mall Chase. Rat Race (2001): If you like comedy, this is really fun! I Am Sam (2001): A different side of Powell, less big orchestra and larger-than-life action, more introspective drama. Bourne Identity (2002), Bourne Supremacy (2004), Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Jason Bourne (2016): They're not bad scores per se, but they did have a devastating effect on how Hollywood scores action movies. If you like grim, gritty action, or want to know where it came from, the Bourne Saga is the place to start. Agent Cody Banks (2003): A spy movie for kids, so, unlike Bourne, Powell was allowed to have a lot more fun. The climactic action cues are among his finest. Paycheck (2003): A sci-fi thriller with a great techno/orchestral score. Hog Chase Parts 1 and 2 kicks some serious butt. Robots (2005): Powell's first score in his long association with the unfortunately extinct Blue Sky studios, which led to many Ice Age/Rio/etc. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) and Knight and Day (2010): I grouped these two because they're somewhat similar, a mix of a spy action movie and romantic comedy (from the time when those words didn't automatically mean cheap streaming slop). The Ice Age Saga: Ice Age 2 (2006), 3 (2009) and 4 (2012): Some mickey-mousing, as usual for kiddie animation music, but there's some surprisingly deep and great stuff in there, like Ellie's theme. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006): It's darker than his kiddie cartoon scores, but it features some impressive choral work. Happy Feet (2006): One of his most underrated animated scores. I love how deep and dramatic it gets, especially after a somewhat lighter first half. It's in my top Powell scores (skip the songs, focus on the score). Kung Fu Panda (2008): Written in partnership with Hans Zimmer, though I did my calculations and it seems that Powell and his team were responsible for 60% of the score while Zimmer and his own team did 40% (including the Cee Lo Green song for the end titles). Hancock (2008): A mix between urban rhythms and electronics with orchestra, something he used to do a lot in the first half of his career. Bolt (2008) and Mars Needs Moms (2011): Powell's only scores for Disney animated movies (sadly, none of them are Pixar). Both are pretty adventurous and fun, Bolt has a larger presence of synths and guitar alongside the orchestra, while MNM has some "50s sci-fi" vibes. In Bolt's case, the bootleg complete score is a lot better than the woefully short OST; with MNM, it's the opposite, the OST has all you need and the bootleg is overlong. Rio (2011): John Powell goes to Brazil. It's the typical Powellian animated comedy music, but with a samba inflection. The main theme, heard in the very first track, is one of Powell's best themes ever IMHO, incredibly underrated. He also did the sequel Rio 2 a few years later, but as far as I remember, it wasn't as good (same goes for Happy Feet 2, with a sequel score that is a massive downgrade compared to the first one). Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011): Eh, just skip it. Just like the first one, Powell & Zimmer are credited as the main composers, but the actual score was mostly written by Lorne Balfe and Dominic Lewis. According to sources, Powell wrote the theme for the villain, then fought with the director, who insisted he just repeated what he had already done for the first movie, so he left. Horton Hears a Who (2008) and The Lorax (2012): They're from different studios, but I grouped them because both are animated adaptations of Dr Seuss books. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019): Powell's music for the HTTYD sequels is a lot better than the score for the first one. Honestly, I listen to these two sequels a lot more than for HTTYD 1. The Hidden World not only is my favorite Powell, not only is my favorite 2019 score (and that year had a new John Williams), not only it's one of my favorite scores of the decade, it's actually one of my favorite scores of all time. It's THAT GOOD. A freaking masterpiece. Pan (2015): Massively underrated. It's among my favorite Powells, actually. It will surprise you the epic heights Powell reaches with the final 30 minutes of the album. Ferdinand (2017): John Powell goes to Spain. It's the typical Powellian animated comedy music, but with a Spanish inflection. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018): You already heard that one, but it doesn't hurt listening to such a great score again! The Call of the Wild (2020): John Powell goes to... the Canadian wilderness? It has a lot of banjos, accordions, Native American flutes. A cool fact: Powell conducted this score himself, one of the few times (that we know) where that happens, the other one was with Stop-Loss (which you also should hear). Migration (2023): After the pandemic, this marked Powell's return to the animated comedies for children. That Christmas (2024): This Netflix movie is (you guessed it) another animated comedy for children, but... It gave Powell the opportunity to write Christmas music!

Around 1:04 they talk about working on the film and the “Escape” cue
 
 
 

Dude. The main titles for this garbage film are incredible. Powell just said “Screw it! I’m gonna polish this turd so good!”
 
It’s so damn joyous and insanely catchy. 
 
I love that Austin Wintory asks Powell a bit about it on his “You Gotta Hear This” interview. 

went to a talk with David Arnold yesterday which was part of the London Soundtrack Festival. The talk was interesting and afterwards you could line up for photos and autographs. This was quite spontaneous and kind of intimate. I told him that I was 10 resp. 12 when ID4 and Godzilla came out and that his music was part of my childhood. He really seemed touched by this.  Amazing experience, only to be topped by seeing Project Hail Mary at IMAX 70mm a few hours later. 😍

I might be one of 5 people on this board who remember these, but for a certain generation, the epic Hallmark miniseries was a Sunday Night event. This list on IMDB opened my eyes to how many fantastic scores came from these! Many courtesy of Trevor Jones,Richard Harvey, and Anne Dudley.
 
While the special effects don’t exactly hold up now (and really didn’t back then lol), the casts for these were usually pretty stacked.
 
Merlin is still my absolute favorite of these (and my favorite Trevor Jones score). The Odyssey mini series has got to be one of the goriest and sexiest things I’d ever beheld on prime time network TV as a youngster. Your move Nolan 😉
 
By the early 2000s, they kinda devolved into SciFi channel schlock (the two Dune series an exception of course). But there was quite the run. I loved a lot of them.
 
Anyone else have a soft spot for these?
 
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls066915055/
Some highlights:
 
 
 

Yes @Tom Guernsey it’s on Spotify now. I was taking a listen to it yesterday. Quite the mishmash of Eric Sera and Vangelis in parts. The main theme is quite lovely. The “attack on Troy” music is…pretty dated though lol.

Around 1:04 they talk about working on the film and the “Escape” cue
 
 
 

Dude. The main titles for this garbage film are incredible. Powell just said “Screw it! I’m gonna polish this turd so good!”
 
It’s so damn joyous and insanely catchy. 
 
I love that Austin Wintory asks Powell a bit about it on his “You Gotta Hear This” interview. 

yeah. It’s certainly doesn’t have the pacing of Braveheart. That final duel at the end is cool though!