The films put out by Marvel Studios have been excellent in most ways possible. Really nailing the tones of a wide variety of Marvel superheroes. One thing these movies have been lacking, however, is a strong musical presence.

Going back to the original Iron Man, these films have not really had the same level of film score heights that we have come to expect from comic book movies in the last decade plus. The tide began to turn with the last released film, Captain America, which brought in the fantastic Alan Silvestri, but even that didn’t really live up to its potential.

Well Mr. Silvestri is back with the biggest and most epic Marvel film yet, so can he deliver on the promise his name and this property offers? In one word, yes. In seven words and three exclamation points, hell freaking yeah! he totally nailed it!!

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Sometimes news is just so pleasantly surprising you can not help but to smile. In the back of our minds we expected another solid Hans Zimmer-y type score for the next Disney period, action/adventure, Jerry Bruckheimer extravaganza. That would have been fine, maybe even great, instead we will be getting something far more interesting.

Jack White, of The White Stripes fame, is stepping on board to compose the music for The Lone Ranger. A bold and exciting direction for Disney to take, but one that makes so much sense when you really think about it. The Lone Ranger looks to be turning into a very progressive blockbuster, and hopefully in this case quality follows progress.

As for Mr. White, movies are not an entirely new endeavor for the talented rocker. He wrote music for actually acted in Cold Mountain, his folksy styling fit in perfectly with that civil war tale. He also co-wrote and sung the theme song to the most recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace. That film might have been divisive, but most agreed the theme was quite good.

Like other established musicians turned composers, Jack White will likely keep a distinctive style in his Lone Ranger music. If he is really successful he will sound like himself while transcending his own sound like Trent Reznor and Danny Elfman have done in the past. We can’t wait to hear what he has in store for us.

Whats this, another special edition of Film Score Friday? That’s right, with the massive summer season beginning in just a few short weeks I wanted to spend a little time now on a topic I have long wanted to write about, famous film composers who have written classic TV Themes.

Many famous film composers have taken their talents to the small screen, writing music for pilots or crafting original main themes. Unfortunately a lot of that really great work goes under valued in the overall catalog of these talented musicians. In this week’s Film Score Friday I aim to make up for some of that oversight, and spend some quality time focusing on some of the great TV work these renowned film composers have done.

-John Williams-

The best place to start is with the most famous of all film composers, John Williams. Back in his earliest days Williams, then known as Johnny, wrote music for TV shows. He did music for the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants, but his most famous early TV work was writing for Lost in Space.

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When I started writing the weekly film score review, one of the things I wanted to do was shine a light on some of my favorite scores from the past. Now that I have just passed my one-year anniversary on The Flickcast I feel now is a great time to go retro and talk about one of my favorite scores of all time, The Fifth Element.

The film is one of my five favorite of all time, and it is one of those pesky films that I can’t watch more than five minutes of it without needing to stay put and finish the rest. A huge part of that attraction comes from the score. Eric Serra crafted a unique, original and forward thinking score that lays beautifully over the top of Luc Besson’s imaginative world.

Eric Serra is a french composer who often works with Luc Besson, crafting modern and non-traditional scores that can be very polarizing. The most famous example of this was his highest profile job in America scoring the excellent Goldeneye. The film was all about making Bond relevant to a 90s audience, and for the score, that meant getting a guy who would break away from the John Barry mold. This caused quite the stir among Bond fans, and ultimately lead to an innovative score that probably just didn’t work for the movie it was made for.

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There are a few certainties in life, death, taxes and a Danny Elfman score for the next Tim Burton movie. Their creative collaborations have always been among the high points of each new Burton film, even if sometimes the music can sound overly familiar.

In recent years the Elfman music associated with the last few Burton films has been quite exceptional. Elfman’s ‘Burton’ style has been perfected to the point that it sounds effortless. So of course we are excited to hear what Elfman has in store for Dark Shadows in a few weeks.

Well, wait no more, says Warner Bros. as they have put a very expanded preview of the score up on their official website. On the site you will get a full minute and a half of each track, which is more than enough to get a really good sense for what type of music we have in store for us.

Having listened to the expanded preview, I can happily report that this score does not seem to disappoint. The trailers for the movie suggest the film has a bit of a goofy tone, but for the musics part it is all dark and moody. The likely juxtaposition between the music and the tone of the movie feels very right considering the filmmakers involved.

So go check out the expanded preview now and be on the look out for a full review here on The Flickcast when the film is released in early May.

Every once in a blue moon a film score will resonate in pop culture, it will connect with an audience and grow almost a life of it’s own. Often times it goes hand in hand with a film itself that becomes a cultural milestone for a generation. The music to the phenomenon that was Titanic was one such occasion.

Next month’s 3D re-release of James Cameron’s historical epic brings with it a renewed interest in the music that captured so many imaginations. So Sony Classical is capitalizing on that and releasing an anniversary edition to coincide with the new theatrical run of the film.

There will be two versions of the Anniversary edition released, one will be a standard editions with two discs, and a second with two more discs, designated the collectors edition. This review will be covering the collectors edition, so keep that in mind if you want to pick this set up yourself.

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The worlds of rock and roll and film composing have been intertwining for a few decades now. Most people know the history of Danny Elfman who transitioned from Oingo Boingo front man to film music legend, and of course the recent notoriety of Daft Punk and Trent Reznor, have ushered in a whole new generation of film music fans.

Most people, however, don’t know of composer Cliff Martinez’s history in rock and roll. The Drive composer spent the better part of the ’80s as a drummer for several bands, and when conflicts rose during the early years of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers he stepped in. Cliff Martinez was the drummer for the band during their first two albums and associated tours, and now as the Red Hot Chili Peppers are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame so too is Martinez.

While he didn’t stay with the band long, original drummer Jack Irons was free of other commitments and returned after the second album, he was a part of the history of the band. Shortly after his stint with the Chili Peppers Martinez got his start in composing with a job writing music for an episode of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

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The Dark Knight Rises is one of the most anticipated movies of the year for many reasons, one such reason is the new score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. The previous movie had one of the more subtle, complex and ultimately effective scores for any Super Hero movie ever, so of course anticipation is high for this installment’s music.

While we wait on the upcoming score to be released it can be fun to reflect back on what has come before. A recent YouTube video has popped up with some very interesting revelations about the inspiration for one of the more memorable musical moments from the last film. It appears as if the track ‘Why So Serious’ bears more than a passing resemblance to the score of an early 80′s French film.

Now most people will use this as yet another moment to stand on a pedestal and try to tear down Zimmer as a plagiarizer. Hans Zimmer has a reputation of taking music from his previous films and re-purposing them in future movies, just take a listen to some of the action music in Rango and you will hear more than a little Pirates of the Caribbean.

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Last year Trent Reznor lead a resurgence of main stream musicians turning to film scores. The 80′s saw a lot of this trend, most notably Danny Elfman, of Oingo Boingo fame and Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream. The best two scores from 2010 came from popular musicians in Reznor’s The Social Network and Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy. 2011 might be shaping up the same with one notable score by The Chemical Bros. already released.

Reznor is back again, with compatriot Atticus Ross, for another David Fincher score. This time writing the music for a film that seems much more up the ally of the Nine Inch Nails artist. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a dark, thrilling murder mystery that seems a [perfect fit for they style of music Ross and Reznor have made previously.

Much like The Social Network, this score is deceptively complex, with subtle tracks that wash over your mind like the blankets of snow that define the movie. The music is not overly orchestral, but that works to the advantage of the film, helping cement a ton of tension and keeping everything feeling a bit off.

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Drive is an interesting film. I have not seen it yet, but I can tell that by its trailers, promotional one-sheets and now its score. The music strikes a very interesting tone that fits in with the minimalistic, and down right retro style we have seen from the movie thus far.

The film features a score by Cliff Martinez, an early Steven Soderbergh collaborator who has since developed an interesting filmography. The Martinez portion of this score is pretty solid across the board. I enjoy the retro, almost electronic sound the score boasts.

It is almost like a minimalist version of the Tron: Legacy score, My only reservation of his music is that it is pretty one note. I don’t know that I could pick one track from another if I wasn’t looking at a track list.

The other major portion of this soundtrack is a selection of tracks by several different artists. This portion of the sound track was very enjoyable during the first couple tracks, but became mildly repetitive as it moved along. Really shining a light on the real problem on this who soundtrack, repetitiveness. I love the general sonic landscape this score is selling, but as an album I don’t know if it stands well on it’s own.

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Silva Screen records has done a wonderful job in recent years of putting out “best of” releases of music by absolutely legendary composers. The latest addition to this library are two new releases showcasing a living legend and a modern master, James Horner and Hans Zimmer. The Horner collection is an update to Silva’s original release, adding in some of his more recent scores, Avatar and The Karate Kid, while the Zimmer collection is a second volume focusing mainly on his work in the 2000′s.

These collections are particularly intriguing to film score fans as all of the music is performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The tracks on these albums are new recordings that are arranged for the Orchestra, essentially creating “covers” of the classic musical pieces we have come to know and love.

Like pop or rock songs, covers can be a mixed bad. Sometimes a new perspective on a song can take it from good to amazing, while other times the magic can be lost in translation.

Thankfully, The City of Prague Philharmonic has a long history of successful re-recordings of classic music and these sets are more proof of their ability to recapture the soul of the music they play. While it isn’t all perfect, there are several tracks that they might have even improved with their new renditions.

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Living in Los Angeles is awesome. There are hundreds of events, screenings, parties and exclusives that would make any film fan explode from joy. One of those awesome events has just been announced for the end of August. The Fans of Film Music gathering is a wonderful chance for film score aficionados to get together with some of the best composers in the industry to talk about their dual passion, film music.

The 2nd annual event has been put together by Peter Hackman, a film score die-hard who felt the need to keep an annual event going for fans of film music. Of all the niche groups of fans in the film world, film score fans rank amongst the smallest and most spread out. So this event is especially exciting as it brings film fans together from all around the world. And that isn’t hyperbole, Peter literally has people flying in from all over the world for the event.

More details on the event and a full list of attending composers can be found after the jump.

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