Whale song. The Aquaman composer thread

[Arachnerd]

Ehh, I'd personally keep Elfman away from this seeing as his JL score was...less than satisfactory.

 

[Tg11]

Michael Kamen would be another composer that I could see

 

[Elevator Man]

Unfortunately, Michael Kamen passed away 14 years ago.

 

[Micromind]

Elfman ?

No thanks.

 

[harlequinade]

Put Elfman in the rocket and shoot him into space, anything for him not to touch this

 

[Mindreaper21]

Elfman gave us some real garbage for JL. I still don't know what his Aquaman "motif" is. If there even is one.

 

[Patchwork Man]

Put Elfman in the rocket and shoot him into space, anything for him not to touch this

Will a mere catapult do? I can fire him into a deep pond in the nearest golf course. I think he'll get our drift.

 

[Patchwork Man]

Elfman gave us some real garbage for JL. I still don't know what his Aquaman "motif" is. If there even is one.

I'm not convinced he did anything save rearrange a bunch of samples on a Kurzweil workstation and remix them.

 

[Link]

Elfman has worked since the 70's, composed countless iconic themes, is basically a living legend. I'm not even a fan, but gosh. He scores one mediocre movie replacing a fan favorite, and suddenly he's Uwe Boll of film music.

 

[Patchwork Man]

Elfman has worked since the 70's, composed countless iconic themes, is basically a living legend. I'm not even a fan, but gosh. He scores one mediocre movie replacing a fan favorite, and suddenly he's Uwe Boll of film music.

He's got more than one mediocre score under his belt. The point is that his score for Justice League is dry sandwich-dull. No zest, no tang, no snap.

 

[ddddeeee]

Elfman already has a high profile movie releasing at the end of the year (and then another for the start of 2019) so he probably wouldn't even be able to score this if they wanted him.

 

[Arachnerd]

Elfman has worked since the 70's, composed countless iconic themes, is basically a living legend. I'm not even a fan, but gosh. He scores one mediocre movie replacing a fan favorite, and suddenly he's Uwe Boll of film music.

Not really. I love Elfman, but to me his JL score was incredibly disappointing and dull.

 

[Silvermoth]

He's got more than one mediocre score under his belt. The point is that his score for Justice League is dry sandwich-dull. No zest, no tang, no snap.

To be fair though I think he didn't have a lot of time with that. And it didn't help that production was in such turmoil

 

[Elayis]

At this point I'm curious who'll end up scoring the film. I hope it's not Rupert Gregson-Williams as rumored, his work on WW was generic as hell. Can't say I understand how some people prefer it over Elfman's JL.

I wonder if it'll be Brian Tyler (who did Furious 7 for Wan) or Joseph Bishara (his most frequent collaborator). Neither would be anywhere near my top pick, but at least they'd be better than Gregson-Williams. It'd also be interesting to hear Bishara tackle a much larger film than he's used to, as his horror scores are primarily just dissonant strings (not what I'd consider actual music).

Not even going to speculate as to who my personal picks would be, as I always end up disappointed with the final choice.

 

[MbJ]

It won't happen but I'd love if they somehow worked part of the old Super Friends theme into the score, even as a joke.

 

[Elevator Man]

At this point I'm curious who'll end up scoring the film. I hope it's not Rupert Gregson-Williams as rumored, his work on WW was generic as hell. Can't say I understand how some people prefer it over Elfman's JL.

I wonder if it'll be Brian Tyler (who did Furious 7 for Wan) or Joseph Bishara (his most frequent collaborator). Neither would be anywhere near my top pick, but at least they'd be better than Gregson-Williams. It'd also be interesting to hear Bishara tackle a much larger film than he's used to, as his horror scores are primarily just dissonant strings (not what I'd consider actual music).

Not even going to speculate as to who my personal picks would be, as I always end up disappointed with the final choice.

I agree with you about Rupert Gregson-Williams, but I think he'll end up scoring Aquaman. He's one of Zimmer's proteges. Unlike Justice League, Wonder Woman was both critically and financially successful. Based off of the backlash from Elfman's score from Justice League WB/DC will most likely revert back to that MV/RC approach. Since they can't bring back Zimmer because he's retired from the superhero genre busy scoring the next X-Men movie. As well as lacking any confidence in Junkie XL to rehire him for a DCEU movie. Instead of going with a more unique choice they'll bring in Rupert Gregson-Williams because his Wonder Woman score didn't irk anyone. He's pretty much a safe choice. His score for Wonder Woman didn't leave much of an impression on me. Even though I found that Wonder Woman electric cello riff jarring in her own movie.

Personally I'd rather they hire more unconventional choices or at least composers who haven't scored anything from this genre rather than hire another Zimmer clone. This mundane Zimmer approach has been plaguing this genre for almost 13 years. Just imagine what Howard Shore could do with an Aquaman score.

 

[Micromind]

I loved the score for WW by Rupert Gregson-Williams.

 

[Elayis]

I agree with you about Rupert Gregson-Williams, but I think he'll end up scoring Aquaman. He's one of Zimmer's proteges. Unlike Justice League, Wonder Woman was both critically and financially successful. Based off of the backlash from Elfman's score from Justice League WB/DC will most likely revert back to that MV/RC approach. Since they can't bring back Zimmer because he's retired from the superhero genre busy scoring the next X-Men movie. As well as lacking any confidence in Junkie XL to rehire him for a DCEU movie. Instead of going with a more unique choice they'll bring in Rupert Gregson-Williams because his Wonder Woman score didn't irk anyone. He's pretty much a safe choice. His score for Wonder Woman didn't leave much of an impression on me. Even though I found that Wonder Woman electric cello riff jarring in her own movie.

Personally I'd rather they hire more unconventional choices or at least composers who haven't scored anything from this genre rather than hire another Zimmer clone. This mundane Zimmer approach has been plaguing this genre for almost 13 years. Just imagine what Howard Shore could do with an Aquaman score.

Unfortunately, you're probably correct about Gregson-Williams. Of all the names put out there so far he's the most likely candidate. But to me he has a very bland and uninspired style, just a poor imitation of Zimmer's 90s sound. And I can't fathom how he keeps getting these big assignments, maybe he's just easy to work with and fast (like Lorne Balfe). There's absolutely nothing that stands out in his work on Tarzan, WW, Hacksaw Ridge, The Crown or The Alienist.

Like you said, though, I'd much rather have some new blood composers get their shot at a big blockbuster score. I would've suggested Pinar Toprak but happily she'll be scoring Krypton, so I'm looking forward to hearing what she'll come up with (hopefully it won't sound like cheap synth due to the TV budget).

Joe Kraemer would be my personal choice, since he won't being doing Mission Impossible: Fallout. I'd really like to hear what he'd do with a Star Wars film. Austin Wintory would also be great, I loved the harp sound he used for the ocean in Abzu.

 

[mclay18]

The movie has three music editors... the first two, Jeanette Surga and Paul Rabjohns, worked with Brian Tyler on TMNT, IM3, F7, and F8. The third one worked mostly with Hans Zimmer but was music editor on one of Tyler's films, The Disappointments Room.

None of the rumored composers have been set, not even Tyler. But I wager he's probably one of the composers Wan's eyeing for the film.

 

[Arachnerd]

Eh, Brian Tyler is very hit-or-miss for me.

 

[Elevator Man]

Despite my disappointment in Brian Tyler's portion of the Avengers: Age Of Ultron score he'd still be an upgrade from Junkie XL and Rupert Gregson-Williams, imo.

 

[Elayis]

Yeah, so long as the score is more like Now You See Me/Children of Dune and less like The Mummy/Fast & Furious. He's not a bad composer, but it seems like he hardly puts any effort into most of his scores.

 

[mclay18]

Despite my disappointment in Brian Tyler's portion of the Avengers: Age Of Ultron score he'd still be an upgrade from Junkie XL and Rupert Gregson-Williams, imo.

He's still a safe choice. Tyler has scored four $1 billion dollar films (IM3, AOU, F7, F8), and he can safely straddle the line between the Zimmer sound DCU fans prefer while keeping it orchestral.

If Tyler does score the film, he'll probably reference Elfman's Aquaman material from JL in Aquaman.

 

[Elevator Man]

Rupert Gregson-Williams to Score James Wan’s ‘Aquaman’

Rupert Gregson-Williams has been hired to score the upcoming comic book movie Aquaman. The film is directed by James Wan (Furious 7, The Conjuring, Insidious, Saw) and stars Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Ludi Lin, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Michael Beach and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. The movie is based on the DC Comics character who learns that he is the heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, born half-human as Arthur Curry and half-Atlantean. Peter Safran (The Conjuring, Annabelle) is producing the project. Gregson-Williams has previously scored DC’s Wonder Woman for the studio. Aquaman is set to be released on December 21, 2018 by Warner Bros. Pictures.

 

[mclay18]

I was afraid RGW would come on board... but there were some truly magnificent moments in the WW score. Mainly the softer and emotionally-driven scenes, as well as the No Man's Land sequence.

If RGW can bring that same kind of emotion to Aquaman... I think the score will be fine.