Jump to content

James Newton Howard thread


nightscape94

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, KK said:

 

Nice interview. Though the interviewer is a good critic, he comes across as film score illiterate. Seriously not a single question about Fantastic Beasts?

 

Also the Batman tidbit was interesting. We could have been spared Zimmer's two note fart trombone "theme" nonsense. Alas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 

Nice interview. Though the interviewer is a good critic, he comes across as film score illiterate. Seriously not a single question about Fantastic Beasts?

 

Also the Batman tidbit was interesting. We could have been spared Zimmer's two note fart trombone "theme" nonsense. Alas.

An interviewer is illiterate because he doesn’t ask a question about one score out of 150+ career-spanning scores? Makes sense. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Koray Savas said:

An interviewer is illiterate because he doesn’t ask a question about one score out of 150+ career-spanning scores? Makes sense. 

 

B does not follow A. A is my observation. B is a general complaint.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Attention fellow personages of the intersphere!

 

The Philharmonia will be giving the European premieres of James Newton Howard's violin and cello concertos in June 2021 at the Royal Festival Hall in London.  The concert will also include selections from his film scores.  Both Esa Pekka Salonen and the composer himself are listed as conductors.  There is no word yet on the violinist for the violin concerto (I guess that James Ehnes or even Hilary Hahn might be possibilities?), while the cellist for the cello concerto will be Andrew Shulman.

 

An Evening with James Newton Howard

 

It is good to see film composers such as James Newton Howard and Danny Elfman programming some of their concert works in addition to their film music.  The concert is more than a year away yet on 4th June 2021, but no harm in pencilling it in the diary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Omen II said:

It is good to see film composers such as James Newton Howard and Danny Elfman programming some of their concert works in addition to their film music

 

Of course they are, they have bills to pay and crap but cheap composers that work fast thanks to countless ghost writers are taking over all the good movies with decent paydays. JNH has only Jungle Cruise this year and Fantastic Beasts 3 on the next, while Elfman has a Joe Wright movie scheduled for this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

Of course they are, they have bills to pay and crap but cheap composers that work fast thanks to countless ghost writers are taking over all the good movies with decent paydays. JNH has only Jungle Cruise this year and Fantastic Beasts 3 on the next, while Elfman has a Joe Wright movie scheduled for this year.

Howard and Elfman are insanely rich. Ludicrous to suggest that they’re struggling for work. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Indeed.

 

6 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

 Elfman has a Joe Wright movie scheduled for this year.

Elfman is doing the Wright film over Marianelli? Boooo!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

Howard and Elfman are insanely rich. Ludicrous to suggest that they’re struggling for work. 

 

What a nonsensical statement. Just because they made good money doesn't mean they aren't struggling for work. 

 

Not surprising though, that a Zimmer fan doesn't understand a true artist's desire to work, regardless of the money.

Some composers aren't content with pocketing the money for their ghost writers' work. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Granted, I feel like that's more the concern of a mid-tier composer than the likes of JNH and Elfman, who are still attached to big names and projects. We're barely starting the decade, so it's definitely possible that might no longer be the case. But as is, I doubt they have much to worry about, especially if it's something neither have mentioned recently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Koray Savas said:

Howard and Elfman are insanely rich. Ludicrous to suggest that they’re struggling for work. 

 

Yeah, it was exactly that that I've said. Howard and Elfman have no money, they are despondent on the streets of LA living like hobos and begging for food, booze or drugs. Elfman of course spent all of the money he earned with the theme from The Simpsons, just like Johnny Depp and Nicolas Cage.

 

Actually, what I meant is what gkgyver said:

 

1 hour ago, gkgyver said:

What a nonsensical statement. Just because they made good money doesn't mean they aren't struggling for work. 

 

 

Their problem is not money, it's that virtually NO ONE is hiring them anymore, because they think the mediocre composers on Hollywood right now (80% of which came from Zimmer's factory that innoculated the industry like a virus) are better suited to score the movies than them. Or maybe producers simply don't care about quality, just put some Balfe or Wallfisch or Mazzarro to write whatever wallpaper and pay them way less than they would've paid for JNH, Elfman, Silvestri, Young, etc.

 

In JNH's case, for example, only ONE SINGLE MOVIE containing a new score from him came out in 2019, which was A Hidden Life. That score was recorded on June 2018. Considering that his next movie after AHL is Jungle Cruise, which is coming out next July, meaning that he probably will record on the first months of this year, that means he was literally MONTHS without recording a single new score.

 

Meanwhile, Balfe got an HBO show and lots of blockbusters, Mazzaro is scoring the next Bond - face it, most of the music on No Time to Die will be his, because Zimmer is too busy doing more media friendly stuff than writing music, like hanging out with Billie Eilish. 

 

Just take a look at the scores coming out this year, it's pathetic. Great composers are being tossed aside, and terrible composers are getting a lot of work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, gkgyver said:

 

What a nonsensical statement. Just because they made good money doesn't mean they aren't struggling for work. 

 

Not surprising though, that a Zimmer fan doesn't understand a true artist's desire to work, regardless of the money.

Some composers aren't content with pocketing the money for their ghost writers' work. 

Talk about ignorant! Elfman is scoring big blockbusters every year. Howard has been scoring Hunger Games and Harry Potter entries for years, boo-hoo poor struggling artists. Give me a break.  Vilifying Zimmer for no reason. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, KK said:

Indeed.

 

Elfman is doing the Wright film over Marianelli? Boooo!!

Oh mate, that could be good actually.

 

Jungle Cruise could be fun too.

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Talk about ignorant! Elfman is scoring big blockbusters every year. Howard has been scoring Hunger Games and Harry Potter entries for years, boo-hoo poor struggling artists. Give me a break.  Vilifying Zimmer for no reason. 

 

For once (and this hasn't happened lately) I'm with Koray here. I actually read Edmilson's comment above mentioning paying bills and honestly thought I was misreading. JNH and Elfman likely haven't had to worry about money or finding their next project for many, many years. They must surely turn down loads of potential projects.

 

I can conceive that Zimmer probably commands a bigger fee than either of those, and sure, RCP composers are getting tons of work, but it's definitely not at the expense of the A-list traditional composers. They can simply afford the luxury of choosing their projects with more care.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Jungle Cruise was delayed in almost an year and will be released in July 30, 2021.

 

https://www.thewrap.com/disney-mulan-black-widow-jumps-to-fall/

 

So, assuming Fantastic Beasts 3 retains its current release date (November 12, 2021), we'll have two new adventure scores by JNH next year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Jungle Cruise was delayed in almost an year and will be released in July 30, 2021.

NOOOOOO!!!

I was looking forward to that... :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ddddeeee said:

Very excited about Jungle Cruise - it was largely temped with Waterworld according to JNH.

Really?

That would be even MORE promising!

Suggests the director has his mind working in the right direction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

Do you have a source for that?

I don't, sorry. It was an audio interview. Someone told him how much he liked Waterworld, and JNH said that he'd been listening to it recently because it was being used as a temp for a movie he was going to be scoring down the line. I think this was around the time Crimes of Grindelwald was released.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

It's his golden chance to improve the Waterworld score.

 

That's impossible. WATERWORLD is perfection. JNH's best and one of the 10 best scores ever written in the history of cinema. And if anyone says that is hyperbole, I will shoot you straight in the face.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

That's impossible. WATERWORLD is perfection. JNH's best and one of the 10 best scores ever written in the history of cinema. And if anyone says that is hyperbole, I will shoot you straight in the face.

 

If anybody says it, you'll shoot me? That's not fair!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

That's impossible. WATERWORLD is perfection. JNH's best and one of the 10 best scores ever written in the history of cinema. And if anyone says that is hyperbole, I will shoot you straight in the face.

With a harpoon gun.

Obviously. ;)

 

I'm surprised you'd rank it quite THAT high.

But it IS a good one. Plenty to love in there.

 

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Eh, I don't want the Jungle Cruise score to sound temp track-y, or Waterworld-lite. I don't like when a composer is hostage to the temp track.

Let's hope it's less "hostage" and more "similar sense of classy adventure".

 

For starters, I think it'd need to be more jungle-y.

That'd shake things up already.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

With a harpoon gun.

Obviously. ;)

 

I'm surprised you'd rank it quite THAT high.

But it IS a good one. Plenty to love in there.

 

Yes, it's on my 10th place of best soundtracks of all time. I could speak for hours on why, but let's not! I'm just thrilled to know that this new film was temped with it. Brings hope!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can you really declare a score to be one of the best of all time if you won't even listen to the entire thing?

 

I can get behind considering it a great 'album' (I have a ton of favourite albums where I don't care for the entire score), but the 'score' is the entire thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Can you really declare a score to be one of the best of all time if you won't even listen to the entire thing?

 

I can get behind considering it a great 'album' (I have a ton of favourite albums where I don't care for the entire score), but the 'score' is the entire thing.

Forget it, it's like talking to a wall with him. You won't even get a reason why he 'hates" it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I find even the OST too much; I have a half hour playlist.

 

I'm just not sure that one can decide a score is on a 'best of' list, but hate the idea of listening to any music that didn't make the album.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Well I find even the OST too much; I have a half hour playlist.

 

Agreed.

 

2 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

I'm just not sure that one can decide a score is on a 'best of' list, but hate the idea of listening to any music that didn't make the album.

 

It does make sense if it's a list of the best scores as experienced in the movies. You'll have to ask Thor if that's the case.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Well, it's possible that the complete score works wonders in the film, but is too repetitive in its own.

 

That's a cliche to throw around but I don't think I could name a single proper expanded score I know (but then again, I don't dig into just any throwaway shit) that's explicitly repetitive beside maybe Kilar's Dracula, but that's by the very nature of the European-style scoring not necessarily to picture but supplying variants to use wherever. In fact I think most of them have a damn good structure with arcs and buildup and payoffs (mirroring the movies, how quaint!) unlike many OSTs which are usually randomly reordered to have a constant average level by alternating high and low action cues, completely destroying or obfuscating the originally intended internal structures of the actual score, and therefore being more tiring and less satisfying to listen to. Or just leave off too many damn great cues or leave too little room to breathe between highlights and build texture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Holko said:

Kilar's Dracula, but that's by the very nature of the European-style scoring not necessarily to picture

 

Kilar's style is generally very repetitive, also when writing for the concert hall.

 

14 minutes ago, Holko said:

I don't think I could name a single proper expanded score I know (but then again, I don't dig into just any throwaway shit) that's explicitly repetitive

 

Look no further than Fellowship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Can you really declare a score to be one of the best of all time if you won't even listen to the entire thing?

 

What are you talking about? I have listened to the whole thing -- in the movie itself. Multiple times. I even sampled the expanded release, which wasn't really necessary, but just for curiousity's sake.

 

As always, the evaluation is a combination of how the score works as a listening experience on album (the OST) and how it works in the film.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Thor said:

I could speak for hours on why, but let's not!

Why not?

I'd certainly be interested.

And in these times, I think we can all do with sharing some of our excitement for things. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.