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Who is able to compose music for Avatar 2


Darth Mulder

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I can guarantee you with 99% certainty it will be Holkenborg and Pope. And I will be immensely pleased. Yes, if JNH took it, totally awesome, Powell is too dynamic (ie. bitty, mickeymousey) for Cameron and Zimmer is too up his own arse too see the light nowadays. His scores sound like an absolute gas explosion from a Dunkirk vessel - and FINALLY, he's had a bomb that will destroy his superhero career! Goransson is too cool, happy to incorporate styles and not/or too strong enough for a steely Jim, yet he is a pop superstar so will this be enough to be flexible enough to bend the knee to Cameron? Tom, with massive help from Pope will natch it. Unless, my best man David Stone Hamilton gets it.....as if......

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Perhaps he just enjoys the working relationship with Chazelle, knowing that he's going to get to do different styles of music?

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On 6/17/2019 at 12:36 PM, thestat said:

Zimmer is too up his own arse too see the light nowadays.

 

I think Zimmer would do it if he thought it was another opportunity to reinvent music. Depends on whether the film turns out any good, and if it doesn't, he'll let Balfe, Zanelli, Jablonsky or whoever else is currently up and coming in RCP do it instead.

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Yeah, Zimmer might do it, but he's going to get hammered with Dune. I mean, he has to do actual work for a production of that size. So, not expecting anything great. Just as long as it's not Balfe, the most banal, ad-man, jingle-happy nobody from HZ's works.

 

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It'll be interesting to see if one composer carries through all 4 sequels or whether, like each film's co-writer, Cameron will opt for different musical voices in each film. It could be the hardest scoring assignment in Hollywood, outside a Star Wars score. Not only are you dealing with the legacy of James Horner and how to carry forth his work on the original, but you're dealing with a notorious perfectionist for a director who loves nothing more than to micro-manage his crew.

 

I do think Cameron admires the classical symphonic composer though. Other than Fiedel (whose synth scores for Terminator were obviously a stylistic directive) he's always returned to symphonic composers for his films -- just requesting synth textures in the orchestration. He's also waxed lyrical about John Williams on multiple occasions. Weren't there rumours he was pursuing Williams to score Avatar when that project was gestating?

 

So would Cameron go full blown Zimmer (or one of his proteges) for the Avatar sequels? I just don't picture it, personally. If I had to choose a left-field composer, I'd love it to be Mychael Danna. I think his sensibilities are perfectly suited to the Pandora universe.

 

Here's an interesting quote from Cameron around the time of Horner's passing:

 

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"I think he's up there with John Williams and Hans Zimmer, firmly implanted at the top of the firmament of the current great masters."

 

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  • 5 months later...
On 12/17/2019 at 3:51 PM, Alex said:

 

I think at some point I said I'd eat my shoe or something if Franglen was hired to score the film.  I thought Cameron would want a bigger name composer, not a Horner imitator.

 

I was wrong!  Mea culpa!  Where's my crow to eat?

 

EDIT:

Oh good, I was actually more hedge-betting than I remembered :P 

 

On 5/8/2019 at 9:19 AM, Disco Stu said:

Could be Simon Franglen.  The official "carry on Horner's legacy" guy.

 

On 5/8/2019 at 9:24 AM, Disco Stu said:

I somehow doubt Cameron would hire him for such a high-profile gig, though.  Franglen's fine for doing the Avatar theme park music, but they'll want someone more notable for the films.

 

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Ehh, I dunno. I liked Horner's and Franglen's The Magnificent Seven, but at least there Horner had already build a strong foundation of themes and cues.

 

On Avatar he did this too, but I would like to see the music for the sequels entering new, interesting territories. Franglen will probably re-use Horner's music pretty well... but what about the music he'll have to write on his own?

 

Oh, anyway, I wouldn't be happy with anyone that weren't JNH or Powell (well, maybe Silvestri). And as @Bilbo said, at least it's not Junkie.

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Terrible, albeit expected news. I haven't liked a single thing Franglen has done as solo composer, and his attempt at 'recreating'/arranging Horner on MAG 7 and PANDORA is one of the most lacklustre things I've ever heard. So now I'm able to add Franglen to the list of hack composers who take over franchises I love and ruin potentially great movies (other 'luminaries' on this list include Desplat, Giacchino and Göransson).

This should have been James Newton Howard's gig all the way. I'm also tired of all the Junkie XL bashing here; he would have been a million times more interesting than Franglen.

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14 minutes ago, Thor said:

Terrible, albeit expected news. I haven't liked a single thing Franglen has done as solo composer, and his attempt at 'recreating'/arranging Horner on MAG 7 and PANDORA is one of the most lacklustre things I've ever heard. So now I'm able to add Franglen to the list of hack composers who take over franchises I love and ruin potentially great movies (other 'luminaries' on this list include Desplat, Giacchino and Göransson).

This should have been James Newton Howard's gig all the way. I'm also tired of all the Junkie XL bashing here; he would have been a million times more interesting than Franglen.


How is the Junkie bashing any worse than your Desplat bashing?

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How has Junkie XL displayed in any way he's worthy of doing an Avatar score? This Simon guy actually worked with Horner on the Disneyworld music, which is good. 

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10 minutes ago, Bilbo said:


How is the Junkie bashing any worse than your Desplat bashing?

 

Because I like Junkie XL and dislike Desplat (for the most part).

 

4 minutes ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

How has Junkie XL displayed in any way he's worthy of doing an Avatar score?

 

Combine the energy of FURY ROAD with the gorgeous, exotic-electronic textures in DISTANCE BETWEEN DREAMS and throw in a little bit of the melancholic beauty of BRIMSTONE while you're at it, and that would have been a great application right there. Better than anything in Franglen's CV, at least.

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Yeah, I remember reading he played some synths on Titanic. He said that, with a little budget for the music, much of the score had to be synth, which is weird. Titanic was the most expensive movie of its time, and still they were on a short budget for the score?

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6 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Yeah, I remember reading he played some synths on Titanic. He said that, with a little budget for the music, much of the score had to be synth, which is weird. Titanic was the most expensive movie of its time, and still they were on a short budget for the score?

 

They blew most of the cost overruns on finishing VFX  for the December release. 

 

Horner was lucky to get Titanic scored in Los Angeles with a good sized orchestra, because Paramount/Fox could've made him score in London to save money on reuse fees and residuals.

8 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I think at some point I said I'd eat my shoe or something if Franglen was hired to score the film.  I thought Cameron would want a bigger name composer, not a Horner imitator.

 

 

 

 

Okay, let's see it.

 

Because I've been pretty sure for a while that Franglen would be Cameron's first choice to replace Horner. But you kept pooh-poohing it.

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1 hour ago, Matt C said:

Horner was lucky to get Titanic scored in Los Angeles with a good sized orchestra, because Paramount/Fox could've made him score in London to save money on reuse fees and residuals.

 

Like it would have been a bad thing to record the score in London. :lol:

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i noticed that in my country 3d is not a thing anymore. except in the big capital cities, Rise of skywalker is being shown in 3d only on opening day. So will these movie make 3d relevant again? I really liked the gimmick..but it seems most people didnt....

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The bloody gimmick rightully died in the home years ago, but cinemas will milk it for as long as it takes for the already installed equipment to break down.

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I didn't even realize they were being made in 3D. While it's a gimmick, it looks cool when Cameron uses it and I have a nostalgic feeling for it since years ago he and George Lucas were planning to convert their movies and we only ever got The Phantom Menace before Disney took over.

 

Titanic and Jurassic Park looked excellent in 3D.

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1 hour ago, Luke Skywalker said:

i noticed that in my country 3d is not a thing anymore. except in the big capital cities, Rise of skywalker is being shown in 3d only on opening day. So will these movie make 3d relevant again? I really liked the gimmick..but it seems most people didnt....

 

Wow I forgot to wrote half of what I intended...

 

here is what i wanted to say:

i noticed that in my country 3d is not a thing anymore. except in the big capital cities, Rise of skywalker is being shown in 3d only on opening day. So what will happen when Cameron releases the Avatar sequels? 3d Was a very important part of the experience... will these movies make 3d relevant again? I really like the gimmick..but it seems most people didnt (or dont anymore)....

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8 hours ago, Matt C said:

They blew most of the cost overruns on finishing VFX  for the December release. 

 

Horner was lucky to get Titanic scored in Los Angeles with a good sized orchestra, because Paramount/Fox could've made him score in London to save money on reuse fees and residuals.

 

 

Yeah, that's what I thought. All things considered, the use of orchestra on Titanic is mostly on the sinking action scenes, right?

 

However, if he had the money (and time), was it really cheaper to record in London than in LA? I mean, even if he used the LSO, like he had done on Aliens, The Pagemaster, Legends of the Fall, Braveheart, etc? Despite the horrible experience Horner had on Aliens, I guess he wouldn't be opposed on recording with the LSO once again, he usually saved the orchestra for his "bigger" scores. 

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15 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

Yeah, that's what I thought. All things considered, the use of orchestra on Titanic is mostly on the sinking action scenes, right?

 

 

The last half of the movie is focused on the ship sinking... that's a pretty good sized chunk. 

 

I just remember the quieter scenes were more synthy, like the present day scenes.

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7 hours ago, Matt C said:

 

The last half of the movie is focused on the ship sinking... that's a pretty good sized chunk. 

 

I just remember the quieter scenes were more synthy, like the present day scenes.

 

Yeah, that's indeed a lot of music, about 30 to 40 minutes, I guess, judging by the 2017 LLL edition. For the non sinking scenes, I guess Horner only uses (parts of) the orchestra along with the synths during the departure of the ship (Southampton, Take Her to the Sea Mr Murdoch) and a few times during the finale (like on the woefully unused An Ocean of Memories, and the infuriatingly discarded Old Rose's Theme). 

 

But I don't know if this approach of "synth for the intimate scenes/orchestra for the sinking scenes" was Horner's creative choice, a demand because of budget constraints or a combination of both. Reminding that a- Horner's big, sweeping love themes for epics until then were mostly orchestral and b- A year later, he recorded the Back to Titanic album... With the LSO, lol.

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I thought Franglen did a decent job with piecing together Horner's thematic material for The Magnificent Seven, but he'll have more room to play around with the Avatar themes.

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