Tag Archives: Interview

James Horner talks The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

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Beginning in 2010, Columbia Pictures decided to reboot the Spider-Man franchise (that had previously starred Tobey Maguire from 2002-2007) and recast the title role with Andrew Garfield. The film was very well received, with Garfield’s performance being highly praised.

The film, being a reboot, starts the story of Peter Parker over again, showing how he develops from a bullied teen into a superhero after a genetically modified spider bites him. Parker begins using his abilities to hunt down criminals, and eventually must stop a rampaging villain known as the Lizard (who has also discovered that Spider-Man is Peter Parker!) The story was continued in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).

James Horner was brought in to compose the musical score for the film. On that merit alone, I would recommend this soundtrack to anyone (because by this stage in his career, Horner had writing film music down to a fine art).

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I admit I haven’t actually seen the reboot of Spider-Man, but the general consensus is that it is a good film worth seeing. Please enjoy this behind the scenes look at the scoring of The Amazing Spider-Man, featuring the one and only James Horner (it sends chills down my spine to see him conducting the orchestra, he was surely a master of his craft), enjoy!!

See also:

James Horner Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan

James Horner talks Aliens (1986)

James Horner talks Field of Dreams (1989)

James Horner talks The Rocketeer (1991)

James Horner scoring Braveheart (1995)

James Horner talks The Perfect Storm (2000)

James Horner talks A Beautiful Mind (2001)

James Horner talks Windtalkers (2002)

James Horner talks Avatar (2009)

Film Composer Interviews A-H

Film Composer Interviews K-Z

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*the film poster is the property of Columbia Pictures

Michael Kamen talks The Iron Giant (1999)

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Credit to Warner Bros.

At the close of the old century, Warner Bros. Studio released The Iron Giant. The feature starred Eli Marienthal as Hogarth Hughes, Christopher McDonald as Agent Kent Mansley, Harry Connick Jr. as Dean, Jennifer Aniston as Hogarth’s mother and Vin Diesel (yes, THAT Vin Diesel) as the voice of the Giant. This film marked the directorial debut of Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol).

The composer, Michael Kamen, was initially given a temp score of science-fiction music composed by Bernard Herrmann, but the music “scared him completely.” As a result, Kamen traveled to Prague for inspiration and eventually found it listening to the Czech Philharmonic.

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Rather unusually, Kamen not only recorded the score over a single week (as opposed to a month), it was also recorded without synchronizing the music to the picture. By that I mean, Kamen did not have a visual of the film present during the recording process (very unusual). Kamen visualized the score as something that could be recorded and listened to as a single piece of concert music.

The score went on to win an Annie Award for Music in an Animated Feature Production on November 6th, 1999.

The interview is broken into three parts (hence the three links) and I hope you enjoy Kamen’s talk about creating the score for this adorable film.

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See also:

Film Composer Interviews A-H

Film Composer Interviews K-Z

Don’t forget to like Film Music Central on Facebook 🙂