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James Newton Howard thread


nightscape94

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38 minutes ago, Jay said:

But the confusing parts is, a film score is commissioned by the production company making the film, and they own it, not the composer.

 

Yes. John Williams does not own the copyright to Hedwig's theme for example. WB does. 

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I wasn't aware Howard's music was in so much demand that people would be willing to go to lengths to fundraising money in order to own the rights to it.

 

"As streaming expands, pay-TV and traditional film releases are continuing on, which means the overall exposure of film and TV music (and therefore its value) is on the rise."

 

So these guys are trying to own this stuff before their existing rights owners realize its hot? They are clearly betting big on its value. I am not sure why they picked up Howard's catalog though. Perhaps his tunes get more play counts on streaming services than we might imagine?

 

Regardless, there must be something going on behind the scenes with regards to film studios' view of film music. Maybe their analytics are telling them things. Maybe there is a much larger market for it these days than any of us here might imagine. I mean, why else would Disney, for example, be all so generous about the soundtrack albums it releases for its TV stuff all of a sudden?

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8 hours ago, Jay said:

But the confusing parts is, a film score is commissioned by the production company making the film, and they own it, not the composer.

 

Probably his name is only the linking element and they pay WB, Sony etc. flat sums for all (or a sizeable amount) of JNH scores, like Varése did for their physical releases and then put their name on it.

 

It's anyone's guess how this works for stuff that is already sub-licensed, i. e. Dante's Peak.

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I read this explanation in the FSM thread, which I think I mostly understand

 

"The company, Multimedia, received $100 million in funding to purchase the streaming rights of music. Then used some of that funding to purchase JNH's royalties from those streaming rights. Terms were not disclosed.

The licensor is betting that as streaming becomes more popular the royalties will increase. For the artist they get one sum for the royalties instead of small checks over time. I don't think it is about needing the money, just selling an asset. It makes things more simple for the artist."

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  • 2 months later...

Do we think there's any chance that James and M. Night Shyamalan will ever reunite for a project or do you think they've now parted ways for good? It's been nine years since their last collaboration, if you can believe it!

 

According to IMDb, Shyamalan has two upcoming projects; apocalyptic horror Knock At The Cabin (currently filming) and Labor Of Love, a romantic drama.

 

While the quality of his films seem to be, for the most part, on a downward slope, Howard's work had always been mostly excellent (perhaps with the exception of the mediocre but serviceable After Earth). If Shyamalan is genuinely planning to make a straight drama picture I'd love Howard to take part. 

 

 

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Shyamalan seems to be happy with indie composers these days, probably because their fee is way cheaper than JNH's. Which is unfortunate, stuff like Split, Glass and Old could've been way better with a JNH score.

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I just discovered the set list of concerts JNH gave in a 2017 tour. It was his firsts "Greatest Hits" concerts, that's interesting!

 

ACT ONE

  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Main Titles
  • Snow White and the Huntsman – Snow White / Escape From The Tower / Beach Warriors / Coronation
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Katniss / Peacekeepers
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 – Rebels Attack
  • The Hunger Games: Horn of Plenty * (written by Win Butler and Régine Chassagne)
  • Peter Pan – Fairy Dance / Flying / Peter Returns
  • Signs – Main Titles / The Hand of Fate (Part II)
  • The Sixth Sense – Suicide Ghost / Cole’s Secret
  • The Last Airbender – Flow Like Water
  • Wyatt Earp – Main Title / The Wedding
  • EXTRA (Not in Program): The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – The Hanging Tree

ACT TWO

  • Dinosaur – Inner Sanctum / The Egg Travels
  • King Kong – Central Park / Captured
  • Dave – Dave’s Theme
  • Pretty Woman – He Sleeps
  • My Best Friend’s Wedding – The Chase
  • Snow Falling on Cedars – Tarawa
  • The Village – The Gravel Road
  • The Limitless Possibilities of Life + Solo Piano
  • Blood Diamond – London / Solomon Vandy
  • The Dark Knight – The Harvey Dent Suite
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
    • Inside the Case
    • You’re One of Us Now
    • The Occamy
    • Newt Releases the Thunderbird

ENCORES

  • Maleficent - Suite / The Queen of Faerieland
  • The Prince of Tides
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Shyamalan has definitely not been on a downward slope lately. Quite the contrary, with the brilliant indie flick THE VISIT a few years ago, he kinda reinvented himself (while still being himself) outside the studio system, and his films have been all the better for it since then. So I think the "break" with JNH was a necessary part of this. Not that I wouldn't welcome another collaboration between them down the road, but for the moment he's doing well as is, with various indie composers (some of them have even gone on to bigger things, like Trevor Gurecki).

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8 minutes ago, Thor said:

Shyamalan has definitely not been on a downward slope lately.

 

Ok, less a slope... more a wonky trough.

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5 hours ago, Bespin said:

I just discovered the set list of concerts JNH gave in a 2017 tour. It was his firsts "Greatest Hits" concerts, that's interesting!

 

ACT ONE

  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Main Titles
  • Snow White and the Huntsman – Snow White / Escape From The Tower / Beach Warriors / Coronation
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Katniss / Peacekeepers
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 – Rebels Attack
  • The Hunger Games: Horn of Plenty * (written by Win Butler and Régine Chassagne)
  • Peter Pan – Fairy Dance / Flying / Peter Returns
  • Signs – Main Titles / The Hand of Fate (Part II)
  • The Sixth Sense – Suicide Ghost / Cole’s Secret
  • The Last Airbender – Flow Like Water
  • Wyatt Earp – Main Title / The Wedding
  • EXTRA (Not in Program): The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – The Hanging Tree

ACT TWO

  • Dinosaur – Inner Sanctum / The Egg Travels
  • King Kong – Central Park / Captured
  • Dave – Dave’s Theme
  • Pretty Woman – He Sleeps
  • My Best Friend’s Wedding – The Chase
  • Snow Falling on Cedars – Tarawa
  • The Village – The Gravel Road
  • The Limitless Possibilities of Life + Solo Piano
  • Blood Diamond – London / Solomon Vandy
  • The Dark Knight – The Harvey Dent Suite
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
    • Inside the Case
    • You’re One of Us Now
    • The Occamy
    • Newt Releases the Thunderbird

ENCORES

  • Maleficent - Suite / The Queen of Faerieland
  • The Prince of Tides

That’s really great to have. When composers don’t have compilations dedicated to them it’s good to have a concert or something as a way to programme a compilation yourself. Nice choices there for sure. 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

So, a Hunger Games prequel is in the works...

 

 

Director Francis Lawrence is back. Will James Newton Howard return?

 

I really want Howard to step away from franchises and score some original stuff... but I'm guessing this is in the bag.  

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  • 1 month later...

So what new JNH music do we have to look forward to?

 

Light & Magic (27 July 2022)
All The Light We Cannot See (4 episode Netflix series, no release date)
The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes (17 November 2023)
 

Anything else?

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14 minutes ago, Anthony said:

So what new JNH music do we have to look forward to?

 

Light & Magic (27 July 2022)
All The Light We Cannot See (4 episode Netflix series, no release date)
The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes (17 November 2023)
 

Anything else?

The Willow Series as well!

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2 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

I don't made. Shows these days sometimes have better scores than some films.

And I'm glad a composer like Howard gets to expand his music beyong the 2 hours of most films.

It wasn't a complaint, but just a surprise at him moving into this kind of thing at this stage of his career. Still, looking forward to all of this stuff upcoming.

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48 minutes ago, LSH said:

Thomas Newman just did a ballet, Of Mice And Men. Not heard of JNH being involved with one.

But hopefully he’ll write another concerto or two, his violin concerto is lovely.  

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Old was not great. The Visit worked well as a film for MSN but did not need JNH, and Split and Glass were decent. JNH may just simply be out of the MSN Blumhouse budget range nowadays? The heydays of MSN and Signs etc were massively budgeted productions......I'm sure JNH would not mind doing work on a lower scale but I think MSN is going for a more 'lo-fi' approach nowadays. Not that JNH could not deliver that......

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I defend Old and would have loved to hear JNH on that, just the idea of time passing and all the weird shit Night is doing with the camera, the histrionics of the characters, I think musically it could have been a whole thing. Split and Glass obviously could have been cool scores too and would have been nice to have the trilogy. But Old especially feels to me like Lady in the Water type insanity that could have gotten JNH in the zone. 

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2 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

I defend Old and would have loved to hear JNH on that, just the idea of time passing and all the weird shit Night is doing with the camera, the histrionics of the characters, I think musically it could have been a whole thing. Split and Glass obviously could have been cool scores too and would have been nice to have the trilogy. But Old especially feels to me like Lady in the Water type insanity that could have gotten JNH in the zone. 

Old as a premise is fine and could make a great thriller. His dialogue and the performances (or lack thereof) from his cast is the Achilles heel for me. 

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11 hours ago, thestat said:

Old was not great. The Visit worked well as a film for MSN but did not need JNH, and Split and Glass were decent. JNH may just simply be out of the MSN Blumhouse budget range nowadays? The heydays of MSN and Signs etc were massively budgeted productions......I'm sure JNH would not mind doing work on a lower scale but I think MSN is going for a more 'lo-fi' approach nowadays. Not that JNH could not deliver that......

 

I have zero doubt that if JNH decided a project was really interesting to him and he wanted to work with the director, he'd lower his fee.

 

But there were rumours/reports that After Earth didn't do their relationship any favours, so perhaps he's just moved on from M. Night.

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The “Light and Magic”  documentary scored by JNH came out this weekend on Disney+. Anyone catch some of it yet? Had a busy weekend so I’ll probably start it tomorrow. But I was mostly curious about Howard’s score for this.

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I've only seen the first episode. Score is pleasant but standard documentary fare for the most part (think piano, spiccato strings, marimba, guitar); it is mostly orchestral though, from what I can remember, and a few moments stood out for me as sounding like very typical heartwarming JNH stuff.

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2 hours ago, LSH said:

I've only seen the first episode. Score is pleasant but standard documentary fare for the most part (think piano, spiccato strings, marimba, guitar); it is mostly orchestral though, from what I can remember, and a few moments stood out for me as sounding like very typical heartwarming JNH stuff.

Gotcha. Wonder if there’s a score release planned? I’m interested to see the series. I’m sure there’ll be a decent amount I can cull and add to my JNH playlist. 

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5 hours ago, Anthony said:

It all sounds like synth orchestra too

 

Makes sense. I recall Howard saying it was completed during lockdown - perhaps he produced it entirely 'in-house'.

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Given how good modern synths are, a score like this may not need an orchestra, plus it will make a huge difference to the production cost if they're not hiring an L.A. orchestra.

 

Howard doesn't seem to release much of his smaller works, so I would be a bit surprised if we saw a release.

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Do you think his Willow tv score will be predominantly synth due to budget? Not that I mind how he uses synths (Im one of the few who preferred his score to Raya over Jungle Cruise!) But I was kinda hoping for a more traditional orchestral approach for the Willow series (with some electronic/synth textures here and there like the OG Horner score)

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6 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

I don't think they will do a 'mostly' synth score for Willow.

It's one of the biggest adventure scores of the '80s and Howard will be respectful of this

I sure hopes so!

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One would hope that JNH's longstanding Disney appetite for big adventure scores would exactly mean that. Why else would you hire a high-profile guy like him for that?

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11 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

 

It's one of the biggest adventure scores of the '80s and Howard will be respectful of this

Like Natalie Holt with Star Wars? Like JNH himself with Harry Potter?

 

But since when is Willow one of the biggest adventure scores of the 80s?

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On 2/8/2022 at 3:18 AM, JNHFan2000 said:

I don't think they will do a 'mostly' synth score for Willow.

It's one of the biggest adventure scores of the '80s and Howard will be respectful of this

It’s not up to JNH. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I wondered for a nanosecond why it's not on Spotify, then I forgot it's Thursday.

 

That link breaks down which of his additional composers wrote which cues. Looks like roughly 3/4 of the release is JNH.

 

The clips sound completely synth and a bit all over the place in terms of style.

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1 hour ago, JNHFan2000 said:

An album for Light & Music is released.

41 minutes. It's a nice album. Like it quite a lot.

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/light-magic-original-soundtrack/1640179298

 

Wow, I did not expect this to get a release! Will give it a listen later.

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