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Tuesday
10Nov2009

Elfman No Longer Composing the 'Wolfman' Score

DateTuesday, November 10, 2009 at 2:17AM
I'll probably receive a host of contrary comments on this, but I've never reaaly gotten the whole Danny Elfman fascination. His signature scores don't strike me as sounding all that different, and the ones that feel more like mortgage payments - Wanted and Notorious in the past 18 months, for example - sure don't stand out all that often. Nacho Libre, anyone?

My own feelings aside, how in the world do you pick anyone but Elfman to score The Wolfman? Again, go back to those signature scores Elfman has composed, and this thing seems tailor made for his gothic symphonies.

Well, he was working on the score, but with the film's delayed post-production, there are now scheduling conflicts keeping Elfman out of the project, according to CineMusic. But just as you hire Randy Newman for jaunty cartoon scores (with whimsical original songs), you should always fit your dark monster movie into Elfman's schedule.

In his place will be former Tangerine Dream member Paul Haslinger. The Dream composed all sorts of scores back in the 1980s; in fact, that's probably what the band is best known for. Risky Business is a personal favorite, but pick it up on vinyl; it's the only way to fly.

The trouble is Haslinger's recent movie scores are all fairly ponderous, noisy collections of minor chords - Death Race, Underworld, Vacancy, Prom Night - that aren't memorable for the right reasons. Can his style work for The Wolfman? Sure, but don't expect much. Of course, odds are you probably weren't expecting much at this point, anyway.

Still, it's another embarrassment for Universal, which had high hopes of reintroducing its classic monster movies. It can still be cured if the film itself is anywhere near as good as it should have been originally, but it's hard to look past all that's gone wrong with this one.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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