The Wolfman Is Pleased. Danny Elfman Is Back In (Sort Of)
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Well ok, so he is he Wolfman and only has one expression, but if you look carefully, he smirks on the inside. In November I reported that Danny Elfman had left the project and Paul Haslinger was brought in to replace him.
It is now clear that The Wolfman is a good and proper mess and latest news is that Danny Elfman’s rejected score is re-instated and Haslinger is out.
WAIT WHAT!?
Yes ladies and gentleman, that is the word. Film Score Monthly has this to say:
“Film music fans should be pleased to learn that his previously rejected score for the long-delayed remake of The Wolf Man has been reinstated.”
The bomb has dropped!
Cinemusic has more:
“Some if not most of Elfman’s music is back in the film Haslinger is out and additional composers have been brought back in to stitch it all together using ideas from Elfman’s material. One name is Conrad Pope. Pope, and one other unnamed composer, will contribute about 25-30 minutes of additional music. Elfman, meanwhile, is busy recording his score for Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, and therefore unavailable to write additional music and or revise cues.”
So to recap. Danny Elfman is back in! Oh yes! At least today because tomorrow, who knows? Will the rejected who was reinstated be rejected yet again?
What we can expect if the current situation holds: The Wolfman by Danny Elfman, Conrad Pope & ?. Perhaps around 20-30 minutes of score from Elfman and 25-30 minute of score from Conrad Pope and the mystery man (or woman). Maybe it will be Deborah Lurie who many were surprised didn’t replace Elfman in the first place. Time will tell! The movie will be out February 12, 2010, or so they say…
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Comments
Yay! Now film score fans will get the score they really wanted all along! Haslinger is certainly skilled, but he’s still no Elfman. An electronic-based score might not have worked with the film’s setting, anyway. I just hope that all these vacillations over release dates and scoring and editing don’t bode ill for the film itself…*fingers crossed*
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 3:09 am
I wish I could be as positive as you. I’m sure Elfman’s work is great on it, bu I’m losing faith in the whole team behind The Wolfman. what are they doing? More importantly, what will be on the soundtrack? I really hope they know how to produce a great score, but I’m having doubts. Like you said… *fingers crossed*
Steve Reply:
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Verese Sarabande is releasing a 66-minute soundtrack that Elfman had put together in November 2009. Visit their website (there are also a few sound samples) and it looks like ALL of Elfman’s material is on the soundtrack.
Danny’s score will be in the film, and Conrad Pope will be adding some extra music using Elfman’s theme’s.
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:13 am
Just saw it on VS. The clips sounds great. Love the main theme and The Traveling Montage.
Doubts certainly, but this is still some good news. Why? Elfman did complete his score, and it’s likely that it’s the “original” score that will make the soundtrack album, if one is ever released (similar to Spider-Man 2). Elfman’s high profile enough to where I think that might happen.
Sure, the movie’s original cues will certainly have to either be extended, shortened, or elaborated on in some fashion or another, to accomodate the subsequent editing, but I believe that will only be in the film itself. Conrad Pope, John Williams’ orchestrator, is a good choice, as Elfman’s worked with him before as an orchestrator on Sleepy Hollow. He will stay true to Elfman’s style. He’s done it before.
If anything, the movie might suck and the music in the film will not be totally Elfman, but it will be based on his ideas. Atleast, we’ll hear Elfman. And, from what I’ve heard, the music is back to his traditional, classical, dark roots.
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
I’ve read that someone said something along the lines of dark and gothic. That sounds promising, especially when it comes to Elfman. Can’t wait!
Told you…
http://scoremagacine.blogspot.com/2010/01/danny-elfmans-wolfman-score-to-be.html
Varese is releasing the CD
Even better news.
Well, the verdict is in… sort of. The sound of the Wolfman is pure Elfman. PURE ELFMAN. For this score particularly, the composer picked up on the Gypsy element and added a dark quasi-Jewish/Hungarian sound to his trademark strings, with some muted brass to add a tinge of old-school orchestration (i.e. Bernard Herrmann).
Film Score Monthly released this clip in a podcast:
http://rutube.ru/tracks/2869799.html?v=badbebfe4388b1bf15cc49e0bca888ac
Sounds like Sergei Prokofiev meets Wocjiech Kilar’s Dracula score. Haven’t heard him produce such a prominent solo work for the violin family since Black Beauty over a decade ago. This is NOT Black Beauty though. This somehow harkens back to his early scores, which themselves were a throwbacks to classic Hollywood works, such as 1930’s horror movies like Bride of Frankenstein. I have a feeling he listened to that before working on this.
I’m now looking very, very forward to this. This is just a clip, but from what I hear… not too many scores are like this anymore.
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 4:40 am
Wow, so the rumours were true. It sounds a bit like Kilar’s Dracula, very gothic, very elfman at the same time. I’m excited now!
The score CD will also come straight from Elfman’s original work. He circulated a promo CD after it looked like it wasn’t going to be used. Guess people liked it.
More clips…
And CD art…
And tracklisting…
http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=vsd-302-067-010-2
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:13 am
Thanks! Sounds awesome! The Traveling Montage and the main title sounds wonderful. Hope the rest is just as good.
Listening to it now. It’s a complete rip-off of Kilar’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There’s a three note motif lifted from the Dracula score that should land him in court! Very good though.
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
February 14th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Hehe yeah, the little motif you are referring to is strikingly similar to Kilar’s Dracula motif. Funnily it also reminded me of Rachmaninoff 4-note-motif (but let’s not go there again).
I do like what I hear though, I like it very much.
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