Who are your favorite composers to come out of Zimmer's Media Ventures/Remote Control?

[Edmilson 7,426]

I love the score for the first Shrek, but not so much of its sequels. 

[Will 2,215]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

It's this and Chicken Run for me.

 

I love Chicken Run too, but isn't that by Rupert Gregson-Williams? 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Some of these blokes have cranked out an occasional score onto the conveyor belt that I didn't mind, but I don't know who to choose in this poll.

[TSMefford 1,509]

1 hour ago, Will said:

 

I love Chicken Run too, but isn't that by Rupert Gregson-Williams? 

 

Nope. It's John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams

[Koray Savas 2,251]

 

3 hours ago, Raiders of the SoundtrArk said:

I don't fancy much that one but it's probably because I usually do marathon of the PoC's scores 

What would be his best work? Kinda of want to listen to something else from him.

Zanelli is the common backbone through all of the POTC films. His vital work is unfortunately mostly done under the umbrella of someone else’s project. Into The West is fantastic though. I’m also fond of his work for David Koepp 

1 hour ago, Will said:

 

I love Chicken Run too, but isn't that by Rupert Gregson-Williams? 

No, those DreamWorks Animation films were scored by Harry and John. Rupert has primarily worked with Adam Sandler and the Happy Madison Productions films. 

[Arpy 4,145]

Powell, JNH and Harry Gregson Williams are at the top - the rest are mutated Zimmerlings, spawned for the purpose to supply background music. Their Master, HANS has a tight leash on them and only lets them out if they can successfully escape the Remote Control Productions offices in a timed challenge devised by Lorne Balfe, the android.

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

I didn't know that JNH was involved with RCP.

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

12 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Some of that sounds nice enough I guess.

 

It's okay if you don't like it. Really.

[Edmilson 7,426]

4 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I didn't know that JNH was involved with RCP.

 

He wasn't, he just did two movies with the RC crew, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It's a common mistake.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

Just now, Edmilson said:

He wasn't, he just did two movies with the RC crew, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It's a common mistake.

I've always wonder which part of Begins' score are from him and which are from RC crew. Did those information ever leaked?

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

Poor JNH. Everybody make mistakes.

[Edmilson 7,426]

1 minute ago, Raiders of the SoundtrArk said:

I've always wonder which part of Begins' score are from him and which are from RC crew. Did those information ever leaked?

 

We were discussing this on the other day in the JNH thread. The sheets leaked a while ago, so the fans could figure out what cues were him, what were Zimmer and what were his additional composers. 

 

I believe you'll find this post to be very helpful:

 

As for The Dark Knight, don't worry, it's even easier to find out who did what: JNH scored the Harvey Dent scenes, Zimmer (and team) scored the rest of the movie.

[bored 309]

Powell at the top obviously. He's basically the only one there who's created outright masterpieces. Harry Gregson-Williams I never really cared about outside of his animated work, and a lot of his stuff always sounded dull to me. 

Weirdly enough, I find James / Jim Dooley to be more entertaining than a lot of these guys. He's made some great contributions to a lot of HZ scores (the Tortuga theme from POTC 1 for example), and his score for Epic Mickey is pretty great. His trailer music is basically schlock, though I always had a soft spot for "Trinity", aka the trailer music for Spider-Man 3. I've heard his score for the film Obsessed is good as well. 

 

Steve Jablonsky I think had more of an identity than most of RCP as well. His more obscure scores for Steamboy, Your Highness, and some Korean game called IDEA are really fun listens with a little more style than usual, and his score for D-War has a lot of solid monster music. Sadly, he seems to have gone full minimalist / lazy nowadays. 

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

John Powell is clearly going to win this so, like everyone else, looking at the others...

 

Mark Mancina - Twister, the two Speed scores, Moana, Tarzan and Brother Bear for Disney are all pretty great (although I enjoyed Moana less than the other two - Tarzan is really great though). His Planes/Fire & Rescue scores for the Pixar/Disney Cars spin-offs are good fund.

 

Christopher Willis - The Death of Stalin and David Copperfield guy?! Blimey. On the strength of those alone, he's right up there, both are superb. I'd never have picked him for a RC composer though.

 

Matthew Margeson - His score Eddie the Eagle is pretty great and the Kingsman scores he co-wrote with Henry Jackman are enjoyable enough. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (written with Mike Higham) never quite makes the mark it keeps threatening to do so - given that it would have been more intimate than some of the other scores for Burton that Elfman has written of late, this definitely feels like a missed opportunity.

 

Klaus Badelt - Ah, whatever happened to him?! K19 and The Time Machine were both quite popular on release, especially the latter, and his effort for Ned Kelly was a solid drama score but since then... meh... although of his early efforts, his first Pirates of the Caribbean score was a pretty soulless outside the main theme. One of the few occasions where Zimmer taking over definitely improved things.

 

Henry Jackman - Think I like him more than I realised! Big Hero 6 and his two Wreck It Ralph scores were great fun, with some decent themes and Kong: Skull Island was miles better than I expected (off the back of low expectations admittedly). However I remember nothing about his X-Men score...

 

The Gregson-Williamses - I never got much from either of Harry's Narnia scores and remember being amused in the liner notes to the second film where the director effuses about the "memorable themes" from the first film. Can't say I have any recollection. It was the moment I realised how different, say, the Harry Potter franchise, could have been without John Williams to write a theme that everyone remembers. As with many of the others, his animated scores (Sinbad in particular) are mostly enjoyable with Kingdom of Heaven as perhaps his finest dramatic work. Although he did most of his best stuff with John Powell... I seem to remember liking Rupert's work more, but looking back, I can't really think which. Over the Hedge is pretty good (and has some great Ben Folds songs too) and Wonder Woman was better than many of the Marvel scores, although Hans' WW84 feels much more fun.

 

The others I can definitely take or leave. Lorne Balfe (still sounds like the noise an area of grass makes when it throws up) has certainly done some great work on His Dark Materials (although I'd have paid real money for someone like David Arnold or Murray Gold to get the gig) but the good thematic material still feels ill served by the lumpen, simplistic arrangements - Arnold and Gold may have written big, brassy (in every sense) themes, but they have fine orchestrators/arrangers to give those themes more nuance and depth.

[Thor 7,490]

Damn, Tom, I was supposed to do a run-down like that, but I'm saving it for Friday over a glass of white wine.

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

still sounds like the noise an area of grass makes when it throws up

 

This sentence doesn't make any sense to me.

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

41 minutes ago, Thor said:

Damn, Tom, I was supposed to do a run-down like that, but I'm saving it for Friday over a glass of white wine.

Haha... work avoidance is a powerful thing ;-)

15 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

This sentence doesn't make any sense to me.

Lorne = lawn. Balfe = barf. I think only I find this remotely amusing, but I like weird wordplay.

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

4 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Lorne = lawn. Balfe = barf. I think only I find this remotely amusing, but I like weird wordplay.

 

LOL. I can't stomach his music either.

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

3 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

LOL. I can't stomach his music either.

Haha... yeah... quite. I do commend His Dark Materials. As I said above, it needs the touch of a more adept arranger/orchestrator as it's kinda blocky, but the thematic material is strong and the music to date has been very enjoyable. Especially if you listen to the themes anthology albums. Having said Arnold or Gold, I kinda think that a Desplat lightness of touch would have been great, but with Balfe's thematic material I do rather like Desplat's score to the ill-fated movie.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

He wasn't, he just did two movies with the RC crew, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It's a common mistake.

He’s a little more involved than that, but only through his friendship with Zimmer. He recorded and mixed a couple scores at RCP as well.  

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

Wasn't the MV involvement in Waterworld also due to the JNH/Zimmer friendship?

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

I'm afraid that in HanZ' world there's no room for friends, only slaves and masters.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

8 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

We were discussing this on the other day in the JNH thread. The sheets leaked a while ago, so the fans could figure out what cues were him, what were Zimmer and what were his additional composers. 

 

I believe you'll find this post to be very helpful:

 

As for The Dark Knight, don't worry, it's even easier to find out who did what: JNH scored the Harvey Dent scenes, Zimmer (and team) scored the rest of the movie.

Didn't JNH do the romantic scenes as Well as JOKER infiltrating the party?

[Edmilson 7,426]

2 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Didn't JNH do the romantic scenes as Well as JOKER infiltrating the party?

 

The romantic scenes involving Rachel were scored with the same romantic material from Batman Begins if I recall correctly.

 

The party scene, which is cue 3M22 Joker Crashes Party, was done by Zimmer according to the sheets.

[Drew 590]

I don't like His Dark Materials that much. You don't end a main theme on an inverted VI chord! You just don't! The chromatic low brass transitions everywhere are lazy and unpolished.

 

Looks like Willis is indeed from RCP. He should be in second place from his two scores alone. https://www.christopherwilliscomposer.com/about 

[Thor 7,490]

My turn! Ridiculously long post ahead!

 

Ramin Djawadi – I’ve never understood what the big deal is. Catchy themes for GAME OF THRONES and WESTWORLD etc., and he deserves credit for being part of the team that launched the whole MCU series with IRON MAN, but I’ve never found much to latch on to, musically.

 

Nick Glennie-Smith – such a stalwart in the Zimmer camp, and associated with many of my favourites by Zimmer. I usually love his stuff. He’s the main creative force behind THE ROCK, one of my favourite soundtracks of all time. WE WERE SOLDIERS is also nice. Something completely different - but entertaining - for HOME ALONE 3.

 

Jim Dooley – probably the one I know the least. Some good patriotic stuff on THE LAST SHIP.

 

Steve Jablonsky – when he’s on, he’s really good. TRANSFORMERS is excellent. PAIN & GAIN is a bonafide masterpiece. THE ISLAND is great. ENDER’S GAME has a few nice passages. The horror stuff, I could give or take.

 

Christopher Willis – weird to think that he has an RC connection, because his two most famous scores, DAVID COPPERFIELD and THE DEATH OF STALIN both draw heavily on Shostakovich. But goes to show the different talents and styles that come out of the company.

 

Matthew Margeson – absolutely adore his EDDIE THE EAGLE, which was one of my top favourites that year (very “Days of Thunder”). MISS PEREGRINE was OK, but other than those, he hasn’t made much of an impression on me.

 

Klaus Badelt – always been a fan. Mostly because of THE TIME MACHINE, but also excellent efforts like K19, 30 COULEUR and especially BEAT THE DRUM. PIRATES, I could give or take. As others have said, Zimmer’s stuff is better. It’s been a while since he did high profile stuff.

 

Jacob Shea – he’s one of the new Bleeding Fingers guys, isn’t he? I’ve sampled some of those nature documentaries, but they didn’t do anything for me.

 

Andrew Kawczynski – made his first mark on me with his funky CHAPPIE stuff, but very little since. I tried to give IN FULL BLOOM a shot, but it was only so-so. I want to hear more trip hop, break beats and that kind of thing from him.

 

Harry Gregson-Williams – I used to really dislike HGW back in the day, because he wasn’t overt and thematic enough, but have come to appreciate him more in later years. He tends to have sophisticated things going on under the surface. His masterpiece is still  KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, but also enjoy THE MARTIAN, the NARNIA movie and obviously CHICKEN RUN. I rediscovered SMELLA’S SENSE OF SNOW recently, after disliking it in the 90s.

 

Rupert Gregson-Williams – HGW’s younger brother took a while for me to discover and appreciate. It was only with the hilariously entertaining POSTMAN PAT: THE MOVIE in 2014 that I stood up and took notice. Also enjoyed HACKSAW RIDGE, although I’m curious about Debney’s rejected effort.

 

Blake Neely – never been able to get him, most recently exemplified by the noisefest that was GREYHOUND (film was OK, the soundscape was too dense). People rave about THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, but that didn’t do much for me either.

 

Heitor Pereira – always seemed like the odd one in the group. Had his niche or specialty surrounding Hispanic flavours and guitars, so I never explored him much. Seemed a bit like a one-trick pony. He seems pretty good at putting himself out there, because he keeps popping up in documentaries and whatnot.

 

Benjamin Wallfisch – one of my absolute favourites of his generation. He blew me away with a string of gorgeous symphonic scores (SUMMER IN FEBRUARY, BHOPAL: A PRAYER FOR RAIN, DESERT DANCER and partly BITTER HARVEST). Loved the old school funk in KING OF THIEVES. And then he shows amazing Vangelis/synth chops in BR2049. Definitely top 3 among the RC people at the present time.

 

Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) – I’ve been a big fan ever since his remix of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation” in 2004. Conservative film scores fans like to rag on him, but that just makes me love him even more. Adore FURY ROAD and think some of the big blockbuster action scores are fine (ALITA, for example), but where he’s really shown excellence in film music is in more indie or lowkey affairs, like BRIMSTONE, DISTANCE BETWEEN DREAMS and WHITE LINES. In the first, he gets to show off his orchestral chops, in the latter beautiful synth/EDM elements that he already knows well.

 

Mark Mancina – not really someone who “came out of” MV/RC. He’s been a legendary film composer for decades, and also a successful producer for the likes of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Yes. Favourites include SPEED, TWISTER, MOANA, TARZAN and the very underrated RETURN TO PARADISE.

 

John Powell – yes, it’s difficult not to vote for him. He is the best of the bunch. But for me, it’s not so much because of his animated efforts, good as some of those are, but rather 90s live action stuff like FACE/OFF or the wonderful ENDURANCE. Singlehandedly redefined action film music with his first BOURNE score; something even jedi master Zimmer had to take into consideration in the aftermath.

 

Trevor Rabin – as with Mancina, a veteran who never really came out of MV/RC. More known as a latter-day Yes frontman, really. Not everything he’s done has been equally good, but when he’s been on, he’s been really good. I interviewed him two years ago (he put me on the guest list of the Yes concert that same evening too!), and in this conversation, we cover what I consider his highlights.

 

Geoff Zanelli – not one who’s been on my radar very often, but I always found it amusing how his HITMAN is one of the foremost examples of how influential the BOURNE scores were in the mid 2000s. He did YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE LEFT last year, a film I really liked. His score was effective in it.

 

Lorne Balfe – like Junkie, he gets a lot of bad rep from certain fans, but I don’t care. While I agree that there are certain works of his that feel interchangeable with almost anything else, he can also deliver really great stuff when he’s inspired. His DARK MATERIALS concept albums are amazing, and his bits on AD ASTRA ain’t bad. Some good things in that ol’ BIBLE series from the early 2010s. And he certainly added to the visceral effect of Bay’s excellent 13 HOURS. Other favs include 12 STRONG, and – totally out of the blue – his lowkey score for Sean Baker’s brilliant “art” film THE FLORIDA PROJECT. Don’t judge a book by its cover, there’s more to Balfe than people give him credit for!

 

Henry Jackman – an interesting case. He can do trip hop and various EDM stuff easily, but he also has a very classical background. Zimmer has often said he wants to see the latter side of him more, and I agree. But I’d like to see and hear both! PUSS IN BOOTS remains the favourite to this day.

 

Marc Streitenfeld – how odd it was to see this relatively unknown suddenly become Ridley Scott’s composer of choice. And I have to admit I didn’t hear that much of note at first. But as time has gone by, I’ve noticed quite a few nice little ideas in his music. I will always be an avid PROMETHEUS defender untill the day I die, and although HGW has the upfront role with the “Life” theme, Streitenfeld created a wonderful, bleak, haunting sonic universe in this film that has grown on me. Also quite like ROBIN HOOD, AMERICAN GANGSTER, THE GREY and his lovely little, intimate affair for A GOOD YEAR.

 

That was the list of the poll. Let me also give shoutouts to:

 

Gavin Greenaway - God, how I love his B.U.G.S. theme from the 90s!

 

Trevor Morris – some good stuff on VIKINGS.

 

Jeff Rona - beautiful score for Scott's WHITE SQUALL, and his muscular symphonic score for THE REGATTA SUITE for the Olympics is highly impressive. Don't confuse him with MV co-founder and rascal Jay Rifkin, which I did a lot back in the day!

 

Atli Örvarsson – what a journey he’s had. From working at RC, doing big blockbusters, to moving to Iceland and doing weird, little, artsy Icelandic films. Love the guy, met him many times and consider him a ‘good acquaintance’. Favourites include COLETTE, THE EAGLE and – post-RC  - REYKJAVIK STORIES.

 

.....oh, and:

 

Hans Zimmer - one of the best film composers who ever lived. All naysayers get my middle finger immediately!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Has Thor finished typing yet?

↙😉

[Thor 7,490]

Hey, that took me a whole hour to type! Some respect, please.

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

Nick Gleene-Smith did a terrific score for The Man In The Iron Mask which is a sort of pre-POTC of sorts (with a more orchestral sound and a touch of Kamen adventure scores) and a pretty underrated score! Great movie, too.

 

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Dwjadi wrote fantastic scores in addition to the theme for GOT.

INCREDIBLE achievement.

 

WW also has a great theme.

The underscore has many highlights and I wish season three would get released on.cd.

Jablonsky's first TRANSFORMER deserves all The love it gets.

Also did some nice work on TEARS OF THE SUN.

[Datameister 2,041]

On 3/3/2021 at 5:34 AM, Raiders of the SoundtrArk said:

I've always wonder which part of Begins' score are from him and which are from RC crew. Did those information ever leaked?

 

JNH did an interview (recently, I think?) and explained how Begins was both of them basically collaborating on every cue. Really a team effort. Then for TDK, they broke it up by cue. JNH especially focused on the Harvey Dent material and some of the other quieter scenes, if memory serves.

 

Incidentally, he was effusive about working with Zimmer and the things he learned from him. Personally, I tend to prefer his least Zimmer-like work, but obviously artists and their fans have different perspectives.

[Edmilson 7,426]

So, one week after creating this thread, I guess it's time to check the results.

 

Unsurprisingly, Powell won in a landslide, with 47 votes. But that was expected. In second place we have his partner in a few old DreamWorks movies, Harry Gregson-Williams - which is also expected, given that this forum has a lot of fans of Antz, Chicken Run and Sinbad.

 

Ramin Djawadi was the third, with 13 votes. Well deserved, he's indeed an interesting composer and knows how write a great theme (GoT and Pacific Rim are two of the most memorable themes of the 2010s).

 

Much to my surprise, Henry Jackman was the fourth. He's a bit hit or miss for me, but he does have some good scores in his resumee. 

 

Mark Mancina closes the top 5, with 8 votes. One vote more than Steve Jablonsky and Trevor Rabin.

[Jay 37,339]

I find it surprising that Henry Jackman got more votes than Mark Mancina

 

I've seen plenty of posts on this forum praising TWISTER, and to a lesser extent Speed, Speed 2, and Planes.

 

I cannot recall any Henry Jackman score getting much discussion at all, other than briefly when First Class and Kick Ass first came out.

 

Weird.

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

I've seen plenty of posts on this forum praising TWISTER, and to a lesser extent Speed, Speed 2, and Planes.

 

Weren't those yours?

[Jay 37,339]

Not all of them

[Edmilson 7,426]

Twister is one of my favorite MV scores from the 90s. And the movie is really good too, I loved it when I was a child.

[Thor 7,490]

Interesting results (well, other than Powell, who was always going to win), and surprisingly high amount of voters!

 

Still don't get what the big deal about Djawadi is, but the other "winners" are fine.

[Jay 37,339]

I wouldn't be surprised he he garnered many votes based purely on the Game of Thrones main title theme, which is indeed truly great

[Thor 7,490]

Yeah, it's super simple, but also super catchy. Sometimes, simplicity is an artform in itself.

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

10 minutes ago, Jay said:

I wouldn't be surprised he he garnered many votes based purely on the Game of Thrones main title theme, which is indeed truly great

 

What's the longest version of that theme?

 

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

Yeah, it's super simple, but also super catchy. Sometimes, simplicity is an artform in itself.

 

It's not that simple either. It uses two keys, which his colleagues could learn from.

[Jay 37,339]

24 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

What's the longest version of that theme?

 

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they only recorded it once, then in later seasons had to artificially loop it when they needed to add more names to the credits.

 

If you mean re-recordings or "cover" versions by other people, I have no clue

if you mean the melody of theme worked into the underscore of episodic cues, that rarely happened, and none of them were very long, from what I recall

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

I guess I was thinking about if there's an extended suite or concert version of the theme.

[Jay 37,339]

the main title cue already is a concert arrangement of the theme

 

I'm sure there's a million new arrangements of it all over youtube and spotify, and probably some that have been recorded for some CD somewhere.  Who knows

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

I'll look after official versions first.

 

Btw, I've gotten the sheet music of the official piano arrangement, and it looks like a decent arrangement that's fun and not very hard to play.

[Thor 7,490]

The 2CELLOS version of the theme is the most popular, I think, with more than 44 million views at the present time:

 

 

[Bespin 8,480]

Two very sexy Cellos, I know them. 

[JB11sos 0]

On 3/4/2021 at 5:26 PM, Drew said:

I don't like His Dark Materials that much. You don't end a main theme on an inverted VI chord! You just don't!

 

Came across the post while searching the archives and had to ask: what do you mean by this? As far as I can tell, the main theme hits a non-inverted VI chord at the midpoint (0:21, bass note is A-flat, melody is C, in C minor) and then pretty clearly ends on a non-inverted i chord (C minor at 0:32). Then the same thing repeats in the second half of the piece, with a repeat of the non-inverted VI chord (1:13) before the final section ends on C minor (the melody does finish on F before the last chord, which is an interesting choice but still doesn't create a VI chord inverted or otherwise; if anything it creates the feel of an inverted iv chord over the low C blasting away, but I'd says it feels more like a 4-3 suspension over C minor that never gets resolved).