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Ghostbusters Afterlife: Who Gets Hired as Composer?


Mr. Gitz

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With no composer announced so far & the early marketing leaning heavily into Elmer Bernstein’s GB1 music, who do you think/want as the composer? Any rumours out there for people in the know? 
 

My out of left field pick would be...Howard Shore. Remember when he use to score comedies? Christ, remember when he use to score *movies*? My only hope is that Jason Reitman doesn’t use Rolfe Kent. 
 

I have a feeling most people will say: Michael Giacchino or Danny Elfman. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the former. 
 

Just please, God, don’t use a Zimmer clone. Please. 
 

So.. Any theories? Rumours? Speculation? Gossip? 

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Considering either Jason Reitman or the studio wouldn't want him to use the composers of his indie movies (Rolfe Kent, Rob Simonsen, etc), I would place my bets on:

 

-Danny Elfman: Hollywood's favorite composer for "spooky" kids movies, not only the Burton movies, but also stuff like Goosebumps. I wouldn't be surprised if the producers at the very least are in talks with him.

 

-Henry Jackman: These days, he is RC's favorite composer for family movies: Wreck It Ralph 1 and 2, Big Hero 6, Jumanji, Detective Pikachu...

 

-John Debney: Reliable and also very used to this kind of flick.

 

-Dominic Lewis: Cheaper than all the three above, and replaced Elfman for the sequel of Goosebumps.

 

Giacchino is always an option as well... But he is always an option for pretty much everything in Hollywood these days.

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I'd like Theodore Shapiro, who also scored the last one.  His last GB score didn't show it off much, but his earlier comedy scores are very Bernstein-esque.

 

I'd like Mark Mothersbaugh or Jon Brion, some kooky off-the-wall choice that knows how to do comedy.

 

If we're going more mainstream, I'd like Elfman.  I know his sound isn't in vogue anymore and sometimes the writing doesn't seem very engaged, but there are projects of his that still shine.

 

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I say, dig out the unreleased Michael Jackson scores he wrote for The Addams Family and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, combine and curate the tracks, then re-record the instrumental bits with The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and you’ve got a smash on your hands.

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I would have loved Peter Bernstein to do it. But that's not going to happen, even if he's a great composer in his own right, he's the son of Elmer AND he worked on the original GHOSTBUSTERS. Nobody is going to hire a "TV composer" for a project like this.

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5 hours ago, Thor said:

I would have loved Peter Bernstein to do it. But that's not going to happen, even if he's a great composer in his own right, he's the son of Elmer AND he worked on the original GHOSTBUSTERS. Nobody is going to hire a "TV composer" for a project like this.

 

Hooper is/was a TV composer when he landed Potter - never say never.

 

Plus with Theodore Shapiro doing the last one, they clearly don't see it as a priority to have a huge name on the film.

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Shapiro had already collaborated with director Paul Feig before 2016 Ghostbusters and done some action comedies for big studios before (like Tropic Thunder), so he was a less riskier option than any of Jason Reitman's previous composers.

 

I still maintain that the chosen one will be someone more experienced on family movies, like Elfman, Jackman or Debney, but we'll see.

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1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

 

Hooper is/was a TV composer when he landed Potter - never say never.

 

True, but he had a very close connection to David Yates. Alas, I don't think the Reitmans hung out with the Bernsteins much(?). But the thought is tantalizing -- Jason being the son of the director, and Peter of the composer, following in their fathers' footsteps.

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I was just thinking, John Debney scored the last two movies daddy Ivan did as a director, No Strings Attached and Draft Day, and he is reliable and very used to score kids movies. It wouldn't be a surprise if Jason Reitman is in talks with him right now.

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When was the last time anyone here felt sufficiently impressed by a new blockbuster score? Apart from Star Wars (why of course!) and the odd example here or there that doesn't need to be listed again I'd say we can count in decades now. 

 

So...who cares?

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8 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Examples, please.

 

Both FROZENs, PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND, BUFFY, the HANGOVER movies, PERCY JACKSON, WE ARE MARSHALL etc. etc. Check out my interview with the man, including sound clips, here: http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-53-christophe-beck-in-oslo-17th-international-edition/ (and try to ignore the amount of background noise).

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2 minutes ago, Thor said:

2019, actually: AD ASTRA. Also, to a certain extent, MIDWAY and JOKER.

 

You're such a mainstream whore. 'Joker' was really just stylish window dressing without any benefits for storytelling or indeed any musical contribution to the drama. I don't even comment on the other two, all three shining beacons of why original film music ceased to be important.

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And you're such an incurable hipster! ;)

 

There is good stuff each year, both in the mainstream and the indie/arthouse/alternative, both for films and scores. I like to give accolades to both, when called for, which is reflected in my annual list: https://mubi.com/lists/2019-films-ranked

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I listed a rather large selection of stuff that I found good to excellent, even if only fleetingly, in that Best-of thread. But really, stuff like Joker and Ad Astra is what should turn anyone off the art form, the epitome of filmmakers following a regrettably wrong direction, with composers following suit. Sometimes you want to choke the filmmaker, as in Joker's case, why he encourages such a superficial gloss that doesn't contribute anything. I get that clueless critics fall for a stylish accessory like that, but a filmmaker working for months with a composer and the best they come up with is a static mass that does nothing with the rather huge character transformation on the screen?

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2 hours ago, publicist said:

When was the last time anyone here felt sufficiently impressed by a new blockbuster score?

 

Joe Kraemer's Mission Impossible -  Rogue Nation in 2015 immediately comes to mind

 

I also happen to like Giacchino's blockbuster style more often than not, though I know many on this board feel differently about that 

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2 minutes ago, Jay said:

Joe Kraemer's Mission Impossible -  Rogue Nation in 2015 immediately comes to mind

 

(Y)

 

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

I also happen to like Giacchino's blockbuster style more often than not

 

:down:

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16 minutes ago, Jay said:

Joe Kraemer's Mission Impossible -  Rogue Nation in 2015 immediately comes to mind

 

Quote

and the odd example here or there that doesn't need to be listed again

 

I can also name a few, but most scores to 'name' movies have been crushing disappointments.

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Beck wouldn't be a bad choice. I haven't heard much of his work, but I like his scores for Percy Jackson, the first Frozen and the two Ant Man, specially the second one, which in my opinion is one of the funniest and most underrated MCU scores.

 

3 minutes ago, publicist said:

I can also name a few, but most scores to 'name' movies have been crushing disappointments.

 

Resultado de imagem para can't be disappointed meme"

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2 hours ago, publicist said:

I listed a rather large selection of stuff that I found good to excellent, even if only fleetingly, in that Best-of thread. But really, stuff like Joker and Ad Astra is what should turn anyone off the art form, the epitome of filmmakers following a regrettably wrong direction, with composers following suit. Sometimes you want to choke the filmmaker, as in Joker's case, why he encourages such a superficial gloss that doesn't contribute anything. I get that clueless critics fall for a stylish accessory like that, but a filmmaker working for months with a composer and the best they come up with is a static mass that does nothing with the rather huge character transformation on the screen?

 

Hmmm....you talk about me being mainstream, but your criciticm here comes from a very traditional place. Why NOT do a cello-driven, achingly chord-driven score for a character such a Joker? It's a great alternative to all the traditional, theme-driven pap that is out there, for these types of movies.

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Thor, that's plain bullshit and you know it. It doesn't do anything to advance musically the character or its actions, it doesn't even change like the character. It's just window dressing, but you don't mind Ridley Scott either, and he's the same kind of surface filmmaker. 

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3 minutes ago, Þekþiþm said:

Cellos sound more dark and disturbing.

 

That's funny, I haven't listened to the Joker OST when I sat down on theaters to watch the movie, and I was thinking "the score it's going to have a lot of dark, disturbing cellos and low strings". Then the first score cue came out when these thugs hit Arthur on the face with his plate, and boom!, I was right.

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1 hour ago, publicist said:

Thor, that's plain bullshit and you know it. It doesn't do anything to advance musically the character or its actions, it doesn't even change like the character. It's just window dressing, but you don't mind Ridley Scott either, and he's the same kind of surface filmmaker. 

 

I think this rather reflects a limitation on your part to see filmatic and musical values that aren't in-your-face overt. It's a psychological score, twisting and turning in the lower register, but without hitting you over the head with a hummable 'villain' theme. It's perfectly in line with the film's project; more of 'portrait' film, really, than any classical, character-driven plot film. I actually like the film and score less than my colleagues (a 20th place on my list of the year, and the score only got an honourable mention -- AND I think it's overrated and getting too many accolades because it's a female composer), but I'm certainly not blind to its virtues like you seem to be.

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Just now, Þekþiþm said:

There's a fuck-ton of scores that bewilder me how anyone could find them at all pleasant to listen to, especially the generic interchangeable types and the industrial noise varieties.

 

Well, not all scores are meant to be 'pleasant to listen to'. It's really what a film requires, first and foremost, isn't it?

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Just now, Thor said:

 

Well, not all scores are meant to be 'pleasant to listen to'. It's really what a film requires, first and foremost, isn't it?

 

Exactly, but how anyone can actually listen to them leisurely without the film is what baffles me.

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7 minutes ago, Thor said:

I think this rather reflects a limitation on your part to see filmatic and musical values that aren't in-your-face overt. It's a psychological score, twisting and turning in the lower register, but without hitting you over the head with a hummable 'villain' theme. It's perfectly in line with the film's project; more of 'portrait' film, really, than any classical, character-driven plot film. I actually like the film and score less than my colleagues (a 20th place on my list of the year, and the score only got an honourable mention -- AND I think it's overrated and getting too many accolades because it's a female composer), but I'm certainly not blind to its virtues like you seem to be.

 

But Thor, talk about limitations. You and your colleagues since years, if not decades, advocate exactly this kind of pale relativism. Let's be honest here: the director guy made himself a movie about an extreme personality, twisted, bipolar, schizophrenic or in whatever terms you might label the Joker's sickness. 

 

Now what they came up with to musically convey this 'extreme state' is a distant, impersonal, atmospheric and soulless 'under control' approach that, as we know, many other filmmakers favor over a truly gripping *musical* solution for their weighty dramas since at least the new millennium. It's you who limits himself into thinking that nowadays a gripping approach can only mean 'hummable villain theme', which is as insightful as saying 'Images' or 'Mephisto Waltz' could have had either Hildur or a Danny Elfman superhero score from the early 90's.

 

I don't think that Hildur's score is *bad*, but it's no more than surface decoration, musically lethargic and passive. It hardly intervenes dramatically, its ideas about this dramatic state of the main protagonist are rather clichéd (dark brooding cello). When River Phoenix is agitated, insane or brooding, it doesn't matter much to the music, which stays about the same. I give you one thing: it is easy to swallow, which seems to me the reason why they favor it. It makes not much noise, it's surface chic. 

 

How wonderful it were when a filmmaker again would trust his or her composer to rise above such limited role, making a potent contribution. As it is, the Oscar this year will again be awarded for not making much noise, musically. Elliot Goldenthal truly was the last composer who was able to intellectually transform lofty ideas into great film music, but there's probably a reason why they wouldn't call him today. And this is, film music-wise, truly reason for a depression, Joker-style (though more for the composers).

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Seriousy, I don't see how this is a 'surface decoration', compared to the superficial, anonymous, loud-noised dreck that passes for superhero music these days. It actually tries to take a psychological angle (both in relation to the character and the movie itself), through lean, minimal means -- which is refreshing, new and bold. I'm curious - what do you think of her CHERNOBYL score? And what about a score like Mica Levi's UNDER THE SKIN or MONOS? Do they irk you too?

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Chernobyl was the same. Mica Levi seems to be much more wild and experimental (less surface gloss, more instrumental variety), and Jackie showed her in good command of more traditional drama scoring done in an interestingly off-beat way. It's - for me personally - still a bit abstract (Under the Skin and Monos), or rather, there could be a few more of the interesting pieces and less standstill but well.

 

I think Levi would have brought more to the table if she would have been hired for Joker. At least a more ballsy choice of colors.

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1 hour ago, publicist said:

I think Levi would have brought more to the table if she would have been hired for Joker. At least a more ballsy choice of colors.

 

Well, for as much as we disagree on JOKER (and CHERNOBYL), at least we can sorta agree on this.

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20 hours ago, Larry O said:

 

Bernstein was his mentor, wasn't he? 

 

Indeed. Their connection is one of the reasons why this film (in my mind at least) is a good fit for Bear.

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Listened to a few tracks from Joker - it's alright, nothing remarkable really. It's far to easy to take a score like this way too seriously and try to seem all intellectual if you're someone who 'gets' it.

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