Yeah, yeah, the news about a possible John Debney Iron Man 2 score has been out for quite some time now, but  now it’s official, according to the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency and Upcoming Film Scores.  Debney’s extensive and eclectic resumé, posted on the  agency’s web site, lists Iron Man 2 as a current project.  Great news for Debney and for the film.  Debney’s style is a big change from the previous film’s rock influenced score, composed by Ramin Djawadi.  Although, Debney’s score for The Replacements does have a bit of an Iron Man quality to it.  Jon Favreau is set to direct the sequel and has previously worked with Debney on the films Elf and Zathura.

I actually enjoyed the first film and I’m secretly happy to see  Scarlett Johansson join the cast.  Iron Man 2 is scheduled for a May 7, 2010 release.

Oh, look at her.  She is so trendy.

Honestly, I’m a little peeved by this remake of the 1980 musical film.  It’s obviously geared towards the horrible “tween” market and everyone’s obsession with High School Musical, The Jonas Brothers, Gossip Girls, and other similar trash.  I already hate the newer, groovier, bass heavy, electronic pumping,  pop mix of the song ‘Fame’ and it’s obvious attempt to be a Top 40 Hit.  And judging by the trailer, it looks nothing more than a two hour Britney Spears music video.  Which is no surprise, since the film’s director Kevin Tancharoen actually directed one of Spears’ tours.

News just surfaced from Upcoming Film Scores that the remake will get an original score from composer, trumpeter, Mark Isham.  I thought this was rather interesting.  Isham has long list of film scores on his resumé.  His most recent works include, The Secret Life of Bees, Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah, and The Black Dahlia.  Other notable works include, Crash, October Sky, Quiz Show, and the Academy Award nominated A River Runs Through It.  Isham began his jazz career programming synthesizers in the late 1970s and he later became a solo trumpet player with sounds heavily influenced by Miles Davis.  I sure hope his talent as a jazz musician breaks out into this score.  I’ll be sad if he succumbs to producing an “inventive” score that sounds like some mainstream club party mix.  I don’t think he will, but who knows.  Hey, maybe Isham will win an Oscar.  Why not? Michael Gore did for the original film.

I thought that was fantastic. The sound effects and visuals are amazing.  I’m actually kind of glad to hear this film is joining the lame 3-D craze.  Please Disney don’t make it into some gimmicky 3-D theme park show, which I’m sure is how Alice in Wonderland will turn out.

Some other exciting news about this film is the score.  Earlier this year we learned the French electronica duo, Daft Punk has been signed to write the film’s music.  A rather interesting choice.  If I had to chose a composer, I would have picked the brilliant Thomas Newman.  Tron Legacy would have been a great addition to his already unique sounding scores.  Still, I love Daft Punk’s music. My high school years were filled with their funky beats and I continually listen to their albums.  But how will their score pan out?  I’m not quite sure, actually.  We’ll they provide songs to the film? With all of the high end sound effects, will their score be minimal and take a backseat? We’ll just have to wait, but in the meantime here is a small sample of their music.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

This next track particularly stands out to me.  I can definitely hear this type of sound in the “Tron” world.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

In any case, Tron Legacy is bound to be one unique film.  I sure hope the film lives up to the hype.

By now, most of you have seen the teaser trailer to M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, The Last Airbender.  Still, I’m not too sure about this film.  More and more of Shyamalan’s movies have turned out to be very disappointing.  Maybe he’ll redeem himself with this one.  A film adaptation to the animated television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, a show inspired by martial arts, mythology, and Asian art certainly sounds cool.  What can go wrong?

But, what’s even more exciting is the new score from James Newton Howard.  According to producer, Frank Marshall, Howard wrote music specifically for the teaser trailer. And what an amazing ‘teaser score’ it is.  Howard has composed a great number of some truly amazing scores for Shyamalan’s films including, The Sixth Sense, Lady in the Water, Signs, and The Village.  And now this trailer.

I can’t wait to get my hands on this soundtrack.

I can’t believe it.  June is almost over and summer is already here.  I know everyone says the “year is going by so fast,” but it really has.  Not cool.

It’s okay.  There have been a number of great film scores so far.  My favorites have been Michael Giacchino’s Up, Star Trek, and Land of the Lost (I thought it was fun).  Danny Elfman’s Terminator Salvation, Hans Zimmer’s Angels and Demons, Bruno Coulais’ Coraline, and Alexandre Desplat’s Cheri.

So, what about the rest of 2009?  Well, I’ve done some digging, and I found there a number of upcoming film scores I’ll be keeping an eye/ear out.  And being a film score enthusiast, it’s no surprise I ended up with a rather large list.

A couple of notable film scores released this week includes, John Powell’s second Ice Age score, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Elliot Goldenthal’s score for Michael Mann’s Public Enemies.

July, however, is another exciting month. I’ve been looking forward to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for a long time.  The release date getting pushed back twice didn’t help much.  The score is by the notable British composer, Nicholas Hooper.  This will be Hooper’s second score for the Harry Potter series, the first, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which was a nice score and I thought he did well, considering the big shoes he had to fill.
Half-Blood Prince is my favorite book of the series, so I’m really looking forward to this movie and Hooper’s music.

Some other film scores in July I thought were worth noting are John Ottman’s score (X2: X-Men United, Fantastic Four) for the horror film, Orphan, and John Debney’s (The Passion of the Christ) score for the family film, Aliens in the Attic.

August brings yet another toy franchise on the big screen.  G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra will have an original score from acclaimed composer, Alan Silvestri, most notably known for his work with Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, The Polar Express, Beowulf).  His scores are always great, I’m sure G.I. Joe won’t be an exception.

Julie & Julia is another film I’ve been so excited about.  I love Meryl Streep, and what’s more exciting than Streep tackling a Julia Child accent?  Well maybe a score by Alexandre Desplat.  I’m a big fan of his music, and I’m thrilled to find more and more directors are turning to Desplat to score their films.  I think this score will be interesting.  I’m not sure about a comedy score from Desplat, though I could be wrong about the comedy thing.

Also in August, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, another animation film from Hayao Miyazaki, will have another score from Joe Hisaishi.  I’m looking forward to another Danny Elfman score, this time for Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock.  Now that is an interesting combination.  Mark Isham (Crash, A River Runs Through It) will provide the score for the upcoming comedy, My One and Only.  And Mychael Danna’s (Little Miss Sunshine, Girl, Interrupted) next score will be for the film adaptation of the popular novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Some film scores to look forward to in September include the animated film 9, music composed by Deborah Lurie with themes from Danny Elfman.  The mystery thriller, Shanghai will have an original score from Alex Heffes (State of Play, The Last King of Scotland).  The fantasy film, Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus will have a score from Jeff and Mychael Danna. And the French film, Coco avant Chanel, will get a U.S. release in September, with a score by Alexandre Desplat.  His fourth score this year.

October will bring two film scores from Carter Burwell (Twilight, Burn After Reading); A Serious Man, directed by Joel and Ethan Cohen and Where the Wild Things Are directed by Spike Jonze.  Burwell will team up with Karen Orzolek for Where the Wild Things Are.

Academy Award winner Gabriel Yared (The English Patient, Cold Mountain) will provide the score to the highly anticipated biopic, Amelia.  Definitely an exciting project, Yared seems to be the perfect fit for this film.

Some other interesting projects in October include a score from last year’s Academy Award winner for Best Original Music Score, A.R. Rahman, for the comedy film, Couples Retreat.  Also, the animated film, Astro Boy, will have a score from John Ottman.

And the films just keep on coming.  In November Danny Elfman will be at it again with his score to the remake, The Wolfman.  Alan Silvestri will team up with Robert Zemeckis again for the performance capture animated film, A Christmas Carol.  Also in November, Ninja Assassin will get a score from the up and coming English composer, Ilan Eskeri (Stardust, Layer Cake).  And since apparently Alexandre Desplat isn’t slowing down, two scores by the composer will be released in November.  The highly anticipated second installment of the Twilight series, New Moon and stop motion animated film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl.

Pedro Almodóvar’s film, Los Abrazos Rotos, gets a U.S. release in November and that means a score from Alberto Iglesias.  I can’t wait.  I love Iglesias’ scores.  This will be his latest score after the Steven Soderbergh epic, Che.

And with that, there are still plenty of other great films.  In December, Thomas Newman (Wall-E, Revolutionary Road) will provide the score for the war drama, Brothers.  Two scores from the Academy Award winner, Dario Marianelli are released in December; the remake of an Italian film, Everybody’s Fine and a historical drama, Agora.

An unusual project, Brian Eno will score Peter Jackson’s adaptation to the popular novel, The Lovely Bones.  Brian Eno is known for his ambient electronic sounds.  I Can’t wait, it’s going to be an interesting score.

The long awaited science fiction film, Avatar, will be released in December.  This will be the latest collaboration of director James Cameron and composer James Horner since their huge hit, Titanic back in 1997.  Everyone is excited for this film.  And so am I, after Aliens and Titanic, I wonder what Horner has in store.

I can’t leave out Disney’s next animated feature, The Princess and the Frog.  Award winning composer, Randy Newman continues his collaborations with Disney and will score the film.

Lastly, we have Hans Zimmer and his score for Guy Ritchie’s, Sherlock Holmes.  This says a lot about the film.  With a Hans Zimmer score, I expect Sherlock Holmes is in for quite an adventure.

There are plenty of other films, but I’m not sure of the exact release date.  Possible 2009 scores to look for: Kick-Ass (Ilan Eshkeri), Green Zone (John Powell), Repossession Mambo (Marco Beltrami), and The Tempest (Elliot Goldenthal).

Not too bad.  It looks like another great year of film scores.

Steve Jablonsky fans take note.  The much anticipated score to the sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, directed by Michael Bay,  is set to release Tuesday, June 23, 2009.  Jablonsky previously scored Bay’s live-action film to the franchise Transformers.  Jablonsky’s other film credits include, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Island, The Hitcher, and the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th.

The song “NEST” will feature instrumental excerpts from the song “New Divide” by the rock group Linkin Park.  The band worked with award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, who is producing Jablonsky’s score.

Track List:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Release Date: June 23, 2009
Label: Reprise Records/WEA

1. Prime
2. Einstein’s Wrong
3. NEST
4. The Shard
5. The Fallen
6. Infinite White
7. Heed Our Warning
8. The Fallen’s Arrival
9. Tomb Of The Primes
10. Forest Battle
11. Precious Cargo
12. Matrix Of Leadership
13. I Claim Your Sun
14. I Rise, You Fall

Good news Potter geeks (and film score geeks), soundtrack details of Nicholas Hooper’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince have been released.  This is the second score Hooper has composed for the Harry Potter film series.  He previously scored the 5th film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  John Williams scored the first three films and Patrick Doyle scored the 4th.   Hooper is a prominent British television and film composer and has scored BBC productions of Land of the Tiger and Andes to Amazon.  He won two BAFTA awards for Best Original Television Music, one in 2004 for The Young Visiters and one in 2007 for Prime Suspect: The Final Act.  Hooper has collaborated with Half-Blood Prince director David Yates over the years, however no word has been made on Hooper scoring Yates’ other upcoming Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be split into two parts.

The soundtrack will be released on July 14, 2009.  Read on for the track list.

UPDATE: Sound clips are now available at Amazon.com or on the Soundtrack Preview widget.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Music by Nicholas Hooper
Label:  New Line Records

1. Opening
2. In Noctem
3. The Story Begins
4. Ginny
5. Snape & the Unbreakable Vow
6. Wizard Wheezes
7. Dumbledore’s Speech
8. Living Death
9. Into the Pensieve
10. The Book
11. Ron s Victory
12. Harry & Hermione
13. School!
14. Malfoy’s Mission
15. The Slug Party
16. Into the Rushes
17. Farewell Aragog
18. Dumbledore’s Foreboding
19. Of Love & War
20. When Ginny Kissed Harry
21. Slughorn’s Confession
22. Journey to the Cave
23. The Drink of Despair
24. Inferi in the Firestorm
25. The Killing of Dumbledore
26. Dumbledore’s Farewell
27. The Friends
28. The Weasley Stomp

I can’t wait to hear Michael Giacchino’s latest work.  Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams, has been one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year.  What a great start to kick off the summer blockbuster season.  J. J. Abrams is the creator or co-creator of hit TV shows including Felicity, Alias, LOST, and Fringe.  Abrams’ director credits include Mission: Impossible III and this weekend’s release of Star Trek.  Giacchino and Abrams have had a long working relationship.  Giacchino has provided the scores to several of Abrams’ work, including LOST, Alias and a compiliation for the film Cloverfield.  I’m a huge fan of Giacchino’s work.  Not only has he created these amazing scores, but he has also provided scores for two Pixar Animation films including The Incredibles, for which he won an International Film Music Critics Association Award, and Ratatouille, giving him his first Academy Award nomination.  His next project with Pixar Animation is UP, coming out May 29, 2009.  Giacchino is having a big year. He was the conductor for the 81st Academy Awards and his third film score of the year, Brad Silberling’s Land of the Lost, will be released on June 5, 2009.

Oh, great! I promised myself I wouldn’t join the Twilight vampire craze.  Everyone I know, it seems, is getting sucked in to this fantasy world, yet another billion dollar outlet of the ‘Tween’ market.  A market full of low quality cheap entertainment.  Okay, okay, I’m a bit harsh.  I’m sure the books are good, and the film is entertaining, but still, I won’t cave in and read the darn vampire book.  It’s just not me.

But now it sounds like I’m going to have to at least see the films.  The upcoming sequel “New Moon” will feature a score from one of my favorite composers, Alexandre Desplat, which I find extremely exciting.  This will be Desplat’s second time working with director, Chris Weitz.  Desplat provided the score to Weitz’ previous film, The Golden Compass.  I’m a big fan of Desplat’s work.  He has provided beautiful scores to numerous film including, The Queen, Syriana, The Painted Veil, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (my favorite of his works).  Desplat’s wonderful lyrical sounds seems to be an odd choice for the highly anticipated film, but I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.  Who knows? Maybe Desplat’s orchestra will be the perfect compliment to a pale-faced, huge foreheaded teenager.