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James Newton Howard thread


nightscape94

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I'm to the point where JNH isn't a priority anymore.

What happened to him..... :(

I know what you mean. I watched Salt yesterday, and I got curious who did the music after a few minutes. Figured it would be some minor composer, perhaps with some indirect Media Ventures ties, but nope...JNH. Which isn't really a surprise, considering the overall direction of his work in recent years, but it's still disappointing. Part of me really hopes that he's just been conforming to contemporary expectations in film scores to stay employed, rather than this being the sort of music he genuinely wants to be writing.

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I'm on a JNH kick right now, and I still love his work. Salt and The Tourist are great scores that are recognizably Howard to my ears. I definitely wouldn't say he's in his prime, like John Powell for example, but he's still composing good music IMO.

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I'm to the point where JNH isn't a priority anymore.

What happened to him..... :(

I know what you mean. I watched Salt yesterday, and I got curious who did the music after a few minutes. Figured it would be some minor composer, perhaps with some indirect Media Ventures ties, but nope...JNH. Which isn't really a surprise, considering the overall direction of his work in recent years, but it's still disappointing. Part of me really hopes that he's just been conforming to contemporary expectations in film scores to stay employed, rather than this being the sort of music he genuinely wants to be writing.

How about I Am Legend or The Last Airbender? Both very grand, ambitious sounding scores.

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I haven't heard The Last Airbender. I only heard I Am Legend in the context of the film, but I liked the parts I remember. I think I was struck by the rather Castaway-like repetition of the main theme, though I could be wrong about that. In any case, I don't really remember anything beyond the main theme, which sounded more or less like classic JNH to me.

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Last Airbender has a lot of Zimmer tendencies. The main theme is basically a power anthem. I think it's a great score but I think it represents an unfortunate trend for JNH...and not because I dislike Zimmer, but because I'd rather have JNH and Zimmer have distinct voices.

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I haven't heard The Last Airbender. I only heard I Am Legend in the context of the film, but I liked the parts I remember. I think I was struck by the rather Castaway-like repetition of the main theme, though I could be wrong about that. In any case, I don't really remember anything beyond the main theme, which sounded more or less like classic JNH to me.

There was a lot of music deleted from the film. Check out the album!

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Good to know...I oughta do that at some point...

Check out my gushy review of the I Am Legend score in the Reviews board. :wink:

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The elegance and gentleness makes it sound a lot like Desplat, but with a richer and more prominent use of strings.

Looks like the filmmakers really got a syndrome of temp love--the Desplat regurgitations are quite literal (several pieces sound awfully close to Benjamin Button).

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I really hope the zillion other films he's done in the last 6 months (The Tourist, The Green Hornet, Water for Elephants, any others?) hasn't dampened his effort for this.

...Elephants was a nice return to the 00s JNH. I see Martin Campbell directed this, and they worked together before on Vertical Limit, which while I enjoy with reservations, is stylistically exactly the side of him we want.

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I'm just glad we're getting a release.

The Green Hornet was completely ignored. Wouldn't mind hearing Elfman's original score (if it was recorded) too.

Fixed. But judging from the way Ryan Keveney said on FSM, Elfman had scheduling difficulties, so he probably wasn't able to finish writing, let alone record the score.

BTW, Jason, Watertower's official site is a terrible indicator of whether a score will be released physically (a good deal of digital-only is mixed with CD-R and CD releases). I don't see preorder links on Amazon, Deep Discount... not yet anyway.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Green Lantern

Music by James Newton Howard

Release Date: 06/14/2011

Tracklist:

01. Prologue / Paralax Unbound (3:09)

02. Abin Sur Attacked (1:08)

03. Carol Scolds Hal (1:21)

04. Drone Dogfight (3:15)

05. Did Adam Put You Up To This? 2:25)

06. The Ring Chooses Hal (2:34)

07. Genesis Of Good And Evil (2:35)

08. The Induction Process (3:05)

09. Welcome to Oa (1:42)

10. We're Going To Fly Now (1:53)

11. You Reek Of Fear (2:13)

12. The Origin Of Parallax (3:25)

13. Run (5:30)

14. You Have To Be Chosen (7:29)

15. Hector's Analysis (1:06)

16. Hal Battles Paralax (7:19)

17. The Corps (2:19)

18. Green Lantern Oath (feat. Ryan Reynolds) (0:19)

And the samples.

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What the hell? What is going on with that score? :(

Now The Dark Knight sounds awesome.

I'm sure Hans Zimmer has composed additional music.laugh.gif

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My interest in this score has fallen through the floors of a skyscraper. Those are terrible samples.

But it's for a modern comic book adaptation. Nothing traditional or vaguely orchestral can possibly allowed.

Shame too - Water for Elephants was a great return to the 00s JNH.

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I still have faith on Super 8 and The Secret of the Unicorn and War Horse and X-Men and Cars 2 and something by Powel. But this is sad because the Green Lantern universe has insane musical posibilities.

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Somehow I don't care all that much for GL anyway, but imagine Superman movie with a score like this. It is a real possibility now...

Karol

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Somehow I don't care all that much for GL anyway, but imagine Superman movie with a score like this. It is a real possibility now...

Karol

This musical situation is concerning.ohmy.gif

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I never expected to say somthing like this, but... Dear M. Night Shyamalan, would you please direct another thriller with a twist real quick?

Karol

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This is what Stuart Michael Thomas lavished praise over from the sessionbs working on the score, calling it "Epic" and "massive". Sorry, but now I've found a good barometer to judge future J.N.H scores by that SMT works on; if he says it's "epic" or "massive", I know it's very likely not.

5:15 in: GOOD Green Lantern music:

Isolated:

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'Pure JNH' doesn't mean it's good. Just means it has his style buried somewhere in those electronics.

It's clearly what Campbell, the director wanted - I'm sure JNH could have given us a wonderful orchestral, thematic extravaganza if he wanted to.

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Are you sure it's Campbell? There's a trend here with all these traditional composers writing "modern shit." All the films are produced by Marvel. Or is this DC Comics? Either way, comic book movies suck.

It's hard to hear, but the melody going on in these cues probably sound fantastic fully developed. 30 seconds people, it happens every time. Thanks to the last cue I know how the film ends :P

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Well just a guess - it's either the director or the producers. I heard that Doyle had to rewrite some of Thor to un-orchestral-ise it.

Some samples leave a better impression than others. These are some of the least promising I've ever heard.

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This one's WB-DC like the Batman films.

My main problem with the samples were all these useless athmospheric cues with only this low "dum dum dum" electronic percusion on them. I don't like that.

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Can you talk about the score at all as you are going into post production? Do you know who will be doing it and do you want there to be a Green Lantern theme?

Martin Campbell: I haven’t even…we are working 18 hour days at the moment. I never think about that until I finish the movie. A lot of it influences when you put the movie together. When you have a lock down, you know?

Is that when you say to yourself that you want to go find a composer?

Martin Campbell: No. We think of composers. There is a list of composers like there is always a list of actors. You take John Williams, James Newton Howard, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, and whoever it may be. There are certain composers who are wonderful at themes. John Williams is brilliant, as we all know, at themes. Zimmer is a terrific composer. He is not necessarily thematically, but he is the upper side of the score. So we will just have to wait and see. I have to see the movie and then we will decide.

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I don't envy film composers like JNH who are capable of so much more, yet who (understandably) see no other way to make it in the business right now. I mean, who knows, maybe he enjoys writing this sort of stuff just as much as the kinds of material he used to come up with, but I kind of doubt it.

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I know these are only 30 seconds samples and all that, but this sounds awful

Yeap it sure does.

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I had a feeling Hans Zimmer's writing style rubbed too much onto JNH. JNH use to show a lot of promise, especially with scores like Dinosaur, I Am Legend, King Kong, etc... but the last few years he's gone too much Zimmer (in terms of his writing style) for my taste.

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Obviously, it's hard to know exactly what went on unless we were there, but my guess is that working with Zimmer has helped JNH learn what tends to be expected of Hollywood film composers right now. Raw orchestral scores simply aren't fashionable at the moment. We're seeing the sad results of composers like JNH and Patrick Doyle doing what's necessary if they want to get work.

Honestly, what we need right now is another Star Wars. Could be a completely different film, but something that becomes an instant phenomenon...a phenomenon that someone was bold enough to score in a more traditional orchestral manner. That could help turn the tide. It'll probably take at least another few more years before that's possible, though.

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Obviously, it's hard to know exactly what went on unless we were there, but my guess is that working with Zimmer has helped JNH learn what tends to be expected of Hollywood film composers right now. Raw orchestral scores simply aren't fashionable at the moment. We're seeing the sad results of composers like JNH and Patrick Doyle doing what's necessary if they want to get work.

Honestly, what we need right now is another Star Wars. Could be a completely different film, but something that becomes an instant phenomenon...a phenomenon that someone was bold enough to score in a more traditional orchestral manner. That could help turn the tide. It'll probably take at least another few more years before that's possible, though.

I know it is far cry from your personal favourite but LotR kind of stemmed the tide for a while, being a strong phenomenon both movie and music.

But it would take gutsy producers and directors as well as composers for orchestral score revival over synth beats and sound design.

And e.g. Christopher Young is still doing great job with the orchestra despite the general demand for the RCP sound as can be heard in his latest score Priest.

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Yeah, LOTR definitely helped. (Remember, I don't hate those scores or anything! Just not my favorite, as you said.) And Williams himself was still working back then...it was just a different film score climate altogether. Seems like the transition really got underway right as Williams passed into partial retirement, sadly. I've almost forgotten what it's like to go see a film in the theater and be blown away by the music. (KOTCS had its moments, and I did enjoy Giacchino's Star Trek the following year, but even that was...what, two years ago? Eeesh.)

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I had a feeling Hans Zimmer's writing style rubbed too much onto JNH. JNH use to show a lot of promise, especially with scores like Dinosaur, I Am Legend, King Kong, etc... but the last few years he's gone too much Zimmer (in terms of his writing style) for my taste.

I wouldn't say it in that way. If you listen to The Tourist, you'll notice that he still has a penchant for traditional orchestral writing. More simply, he's acknowledging the current "hip" film music style here, because that's what he's asked to write. This is THE sound of contemporary blockbuster movies, period. The full-out symphonic, classically-styled score is the exception to the rule. If a composer wants to stay in the map and get the gigs for big-budget features, that's what he has to come up with.

Sure, there are composers who seem impermeable to these stylings (Giacchino, Desplat, Shore), but all of them are first and foremost tied to directors and producers who want different kind of scores.

JNH is on the film music scene scoring high-profile films since almost 25 years. He always had a kind of chameleon personality, adapting and conforming his own style to the film he's scoring. He always moved in and out from full symphonic scores to electronic-based textural kind of things or a blend of both. I personally like him the most when he shows a really different and more intimate voice (i.e. Unbreakable, The Village).

Honestly, what we need right now is another Star Wars. Could be a completely different film, but something that becomes an instant phenomenon...a phenomenon that someone was bold enough to score in a more traditional orchestral manner. That could help turn the tide. It'll probably take at least another few more years before that's possible, though.

I don't think it will ever happen the same way it happened in 1977. We live in a pretty different time. Movies are also very different from the ones made in that era. Audiences of course are very different. So it's quite hard to strike lightning twice in the same place.

What we need are probably better composers, but more importantly we need better directors and producers who are not frightened to try different approaches.

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I don't think it will ever happen the same way it happened in 1977. We live in a pretty different time. Movies are also very different from the ones made in that era. Audiences of course are very different. So it's quite hard to strike lightning twice in the same place.

What we need are probably better composers, but more importantly we need better directors and producers who are not frightened to try different approaches.

Certainly. I'm sure it'll be quite different...fundamentally different, even. But it'd be nice if someone could come along and just reinvent the traditional-ish orchestral score, ushering in a new era of film composers pushing the orchestra into new, interesting, meaningful, yet accessible directions. :)

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