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Mark Kermode and Jenny Nelson have written Mark Kermode’s Surround Sound: The Stories Of Movie Music – and it arrives this year.

Mark Kermode, as many of you will be happily aware, has several film books to his name, alongside his work as Simon Mayo’s wingman on the Kermode & Mayo’s Take podcasts. That, and he’s in a band: The Dodge Brothers. All of these things are relevant for what will come next in this story.

In 2013, after the publication of his book Hatchet Job, Mark Kermode first told me that he was working on a book about music in movies. But he’s taken a few pit stops on the way, and the original expected publication date of 2015 has, er, taken a few turns.

Kermode switched tack to his autobiographical book about his time in bands, How Does It Feel?: A Life Of Musical Misadventures, and...

Event Horizon, the 1997 sci-fi horror gem by Paul W.S. Anderson, is finally landing on streaming, and for free. The film premiered March 1 on Tubi, and audiences will be able to stream one of the more underrated sci-fi films of the '90s for absolutely free, as long as they're willing to be interrupted by a few ads along the way. The cult sci-fi film will be added to Tubi's sci-fi library alongside other titles like The Creator, Real Steel, and War of the Worlds.

Event Horizon follows the crew of the spaceship Lewis and Clark as they embark on a rescue mission after the Event Horizon, a ship that vanished from the galaxy seven years ago before randomly reappearing near Neptune and sending out a distress signal. The crew is joined by one of the Event Horizon's designers, a scientist (played by Sam Neill in one of his wildest...

The late Michael Kamen’s James Bond 007 score to Licence To Kill has been remastered and reissued: more here.

I’ve slapped myself on the wrist for not covering them much before, and thus I want to shed a light on the terrific work being done by Lalaland Records. This American label has been publishing full and limited film scores for a long time now, and its catalogue is quite brilliant. For us in the UK, the shipping cost tends to be prohibitive unless you’re doing a special order for a big birthday or something. But still, if you’ve had a bonus from work, and are looking for some superb scores – and they’ve not paid me a penny to say this – then I can’t recommend their work enough.

Case in point: the latest release is the score to Timothy Dalton’s second (and final) James Bond adventure,...

As long as there are rapacious billionaires and corrupt politicians hoarding wealth and making life miserable for the less fortunate, there will always be a need for the Robin Hood folk tale. The Sherwood Forest-dwelling outlaw who stole from the rich and gave to the poor has been depicted in films since Douglas Fairbanks slung a bow over his shoulder and strapped on a spiffy pair of tights in the 1922 landmark silent production "Robin Hood." Michael Curtiz delivered what still stands as the platonic ideal of a Robin Hood movie in 1938 with the Errol Flynn-starring "The Adventures of Robin Hood," but there have been other worthy takes on the character over the years, most notably Disney's 1973 animated film "Robin Hood" and Richard Lester's poignant 1976 romance "Robin and Marian" starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn.

For most modern audiences, the most well-known rendition of the Robin Hood saga...

Based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, and scripted by John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air. Portraying the psychological and emotional price paid by these young men as they helped destroy the horror of Hitler’s Third Reich, is at the heart of “Masters of the Air.” Some were shot down and captured; some were wounded or killed. And some were lucky enough to make it home. Regardless of individual fate, a toll was exacted on them all.

The series received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Sound Editing For A Limited Or Anthology Series, Movie Or Special, Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Limited Or Anthology Series...

The Event Horizon episode of Revisited was Written and Narrated by Vannah Taylor, Edited by Juan Jimenez, Produced by Tyler Nichols and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

We all know the term “Hell on Earth,” but what about “Hell in Space”? That might be the most succinct way of describing the 1997 film, Event Horizon (watch it Here), directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and written by Philip Eisner. The film’s title is borrowed from an astrophysics term, and although there are various theories surrounding this term, it can best be summed up by someone such as myself who does not have an astrophysics degree as the idea that once a particle is inside the horizon, moving into the hole is inevitable—which leads us to the colloquial understanding of an “event horizon” as “a point of no return” and that is exactly where the characters of this film will find themselves.

Based on a True Story composer Sherri Chung brought a typewriter to the orchestra to perform her score during Deadline’s Sound & Screen live-music event. The typewriter was just one of the unusual instruments she included in the music for the Peacock comedy mystery.

“I just wanted find something that was fun and cool to use that I’d never been able to use before,” Chung said. “It was definitely a little bit more modern noir, which a typewriter’s not that. The show is the modern part.”

In the Peacock/Universal Content Productions series, Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina play a married couple who start a true crime podcast that attracts the attention of the killer himself (Tom Bateman). The podcasters find themselves caught between reporting on the killer and becoming his accomplice.

As the killer, Bateman can be violent and charming. Chung said the series’ creator and showrunner...

Composer Blake Neely called his score for Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air a tribute to his mentor, the late Michael Kamen. Kamen gave Neely his first job as an orchestrator on Band of Brothers, the first in Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ World War II series trilogy.

“It’s a love letter to Michael,” Neely said, choking up at Deadline’s Sound & Screen Television live-music event talking about Kamen, who died in 2003. “I got my start in this business because of Michael Kamen. On Band of Brothers I was one of his orchestrators. Then we lost him.”

The producers of The Pacific asked Neely to work with Hans Zimmer and Geoff Zanelli. Neely did so reluctantly, but stopped producer Gary Goetzman in his tracks when he began asking Neely to collaborate again on Masters.

“I said, ‘No, I just want to do this myself,’” Neely said. “I want...

President Joe Biden marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day in a speech with a warning of current perils to democracy, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the risks of a fracturing of the NATO alliance.

Before dozens of surviving veterans, a number of them centenarians who traveled for the Normandy ceremony, Biden said, “We are not far off from the time, the last living voices of those who fought and bled on D-Day will no longer be with us. So we have a special obligation. We cannot let what happened here be lost in the silence of years to come.”

Among those in the crowd were Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, whose Saving Private Ryan and Band Of Brothers helped elevate the stories of D-Day — including the sacrifices and heroism of servicemen — to new generations. The influence was apparent as the Band of Brothers soundtrack, by Michael Kamen, could...

Who are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer? A great film or TV score is most potent as an artform when it reinforces the emotion on screen, but it also knows when music is not needed. What strategies do you employ to get this balance right? These were some of the topics discussed by four top TV composers when they joined Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2024 awards contenders: Julia Newman (“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans”), Sherri Chung (“Based on a True Story”), David Fleming (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith”) and Nami Melumad (“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”). Watch our fascinating full group roundtable panel above, and click on each name above to view each nominee’s individual interview.

See Watch our lively chats with over 300 of 2024 Emmy contenders

“I used to go to sleep when I was a...

Like many children of the 80s, I have a soft spot for the 1985 adventure epic Ladyhawke. It’s directed by the great Richard Donner, with it coming just before The Goonies and Lethal Weapon, but after his time with the Superman franchise. Lavishly produced, it wasn’t a hit in 1985 despite having a top-notch cast that included the late Rutger Hauer (in a rare heroic role), Michelle Pfeiffer, and Matthew Broderick. While some might say the latter was rather improbably cast as an Italian thief in the Middle Ages, that’s not actually the weirdest thing about the movie.

Donner has a reputation for always choosing superb composers for his films. Just think about how iconic Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton’s work is for Lethal Weapon, John Williams’s Superman theme, Jerry Goldsmith’s work on The Omen, and Dave Grusin’s score for The Goonies. Yet, one score...

David Sanborn, the six time Grammy-winning alto saxophonist who played at Woodstock, composed music for the Lethal Weapon movies, played in the SNL and Late Night with David Letterman bands and worked with everyone from Stevie Wonder to David Bowie, died Sunday afternoon, May 12th, after an extended battle with prostate cancer with complications. He Was 78.

Sanborn’s music is often described “smooth jazz,” but he reportedly rejected that characterization, and one can see why. His lively, iconic sax solo on Bowie’s “Young Americans” is anything but. Sanborn preferred the idea that he “put the saxophone back into rock ’n’ roll.”

Indeed, he worked with a virtual who’s who of rock and R&b legends, including James Brown, Eric Clapton, Roger Daltrey, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Al Jarreau, George Benson, Elton John, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel, Roger Waters, Steely Dan, the Eagles,...

In deciding on our next Wtf celebrity to cover, we passed around several names but in the end we all decided that: There could be only One! Despite being basically blind, Christopher Lambert made a name for himself as the king of Sci-Fi action films. One could say he single-handedly kept Blockbuster Video in business as most of his output in the 90’s debuted on the bottom shelves of the video rental chain. But few performers have made their mark on the international stage like Christopher Lambert, alternating between North American schlock and more prestigious French fare. Despite most of us knowing Lambert mainly for two iconic roles, there is much more to know about this American-born French actor; it’s time we find out just Wtf Happened to Christopher Lambert.

Greystroke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

But as always, we must begin at the beginning, and...

Expect the unexpected. Take it outside. Buy the vinyl. That’s right, updated version of the Road House soundtrack is getting the vinyl treatment from Mondo, complete with tracks that have never been heard before. Dubbed Road House: The Lost Album, the double vinyl will feature 12 songs from the beloved movie, along with seven tracks from The Jeff Healey Band’s original recording sessions.

As per the official release, “While the Road House film contained a dozen performances by Jeff Healey and his band, the official soundtrack released back in 1989 contained only four of those songs. In the thirty-four years since Jeff Healey recorded these songs, this is the first time they have all been made available. And, as a cool bonus, we’ve included seven songs that were recorded in these same sessions for consideration, but never made it into the film. These extra recordings unheard for almost thirty-five years,...

Wolfgang Van Halen and the Van Halen family have made a $100,000 donation to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation to benefit music programs in schools. The financial contribution kickstarts the nonprofit’s “Adopt a School” campaign.

The donation will be spread across 100 schools across the country, with each school receiving $1,000 toward its music program.

“Music has been a huge part of my life, and it is our family’s great pleasure to help support music education programs and bring the gift of music to students across the country,” said Wolfgang. “Music education has proven to be a huge contributor toward a student’s success in school and in life.”

Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation CEO Tricia Williams added, “Our mission is to make sure there is an instrument in the hands of every student who needs and wants one. By increasing schools’ inventories of quality, playable instruments, music teachers will...

The Marvels may have set up a crossover between Deadpool 3 and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, potentially bringing Wolverine along with Deadpool. The post-credits scene in The Marvels implies that Monica Rambeau is now in the Fox X-Men movie universe, which suggests she may appear in Deadpool 3. Monica Rambeau's presence in the Fox universe could be the key to bringing Deadpool into the proper MCU and potentially introducing the X-Men.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Marvels.The recently released The Marvels appears to be setting up an exciting crossover in the forthcoming Deadpool 3. The third installment of Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool series will see Wade Wilson enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe and potentially bring Wolverine (with Hugh Jackman reprising the role) along with him. The Marvels closed out with the McU's traditional post-credits scene teasing future installments, but the specific setting one of its heroes winds...

One of the more iconic elements of “Highlander,” the high-concept fantasy adventure from 1986 that went on to spawn a long-running franchise, is the movie’s songs, written and performed by Queen. And Chad Stahelski, who will be directing the remake for Lionsgate, says that those songs will return for the new movie.

“Yes,” Stahelski told TheWrap while talking about the Oscar chances for “John Wick: Chapter 4.” “Probably in a different way than you think, but hardcore yes.”

Queen wrote and recorded songs for the original “Highlander” and released an album, “A Kind of Magic,” in 1986 that served as an official soundtrack to the movie.

The songs were perfect for the movie, which depicted a battle between immortal beings known as Highlanders in modern day Manhattan. Instead of Scottish moors, they battle in underground parking garages. That kind of thing. Queen’s songs were wedged in among Michael Kamen’s...

Composer Mark Snow started his professional music writing career in 1976 with the release of the notorious TV movie "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble," starring a young John Travolta. Paul Williams wrote the theme song for the movie, but it was Snow who composed the incidental music. He was about 29 years old. 

Since then, Snow has been a regular presence in the TV world, having written for shows like "Starsky & Hutch," "The Next Step Beyond," "Vega$," "The Love Boat," "Dynasty," "T.J. Hooker," "Pee-wee's Playhouse," and "Dark Justice." Snow's popularity exploded in the popular consciousness in 1993, however, with the debut of Chris Carter's paranormal investigation show "The X-Files." 

"The X-Files" was about a pair of FBI agents who operated out of a basement and were given the weird, ghostly, monster-y, alien-related cases no one wanted. Mulder (David Duchovny) was a believer, Scully (Gillian Anderson) was a skeptic. Snow, who...

All was not well with Sylvester Stallone’s career in the summer of 1995. Judge Dredd had come out, and, despite blockbuster business overseas, the film flopped in the all-important North American market. It would kick off a dry spell in Sly’s career, with many of his follow-up movies also doing poorly, to the point that in the early 2000s, he was stuck doing low-rent movies that went direct to video, such as Shade and Avenging Angelo. Of course, a major comeback for the Italian Stallion was just around the corner. Still, in this episode of Stallone Revisited, we look back at his follow-up to Judge Dredd, Assassins, which, on paper, should have been one of Sly’s classics but has gone on to become something of an obscure, underrated outing on his CV.

In the 1990s, spec scripts were all the rage. For those who don’t know, a...

Bob Rice, who teamed with Journey to release a groundbreaking rock music video game and represented top-notch composers like Steve Ouimette, Sascha Dikiciyan and Inon Zur in the industry, has died. He was 79.

Rice died Wednesday night of Copd at an assisted living facility in Santa Clara, California, publicist Greg O’Connor-Read told The Hollywood Reporter.

Rice created and executive produced what was perhaps the first rock video game, “Journey Escape.” Released by Data Age in 1982 for the Atari 2600 console and narrated by Casey Kasem, it featured band members Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain, Ross Valory and Steve Smith as primitive digitized avatars.

Gamers were tasked in the instructions with guiding each musician “past hordes of Love-Crazed Groupies, Sneaky Photographers and Shifty-eyed Promoters to the safety of the Journey Escape Vehicle in time to make the next concert. Your mighty manager and loyal roadies are there to help, but the escape is up to you!

Composer Christopher Lennertz was declared a BMI Icon at Broadcast Music Inc.’s 39th annual Film, TV and Visual Media Awards Wednesday night (May 10) in Beverly Hills.

Lennertz, a two-time Emmy nominee, veteran film composer and game-music creator, was honored for his 30-year career in media music-making.

BMI president and CEO Mike O’Neill presented the award, noting that Lennertz was “legendary for his diverse and distinct impact across the worlds of film, television and gaming” and telling the 51-year-old composer, “your captivating scores have taken us on a thrilling ride.”

Added BMI’s VP creative, film, TV and visual media Tracy McKnight: “His compelling body of work, from blockbuster films to hit TV shows and gaming, highlights Christopher’s passion for all styles of music and has made him one of the industry’s most sought-after composers. He is also dedicated to giving back through philanthropic work and advancing the next generation of composers.

We're back with another Blu-ray round-up! As always, I gather up the latest releases for you in one handy spot. You're welcome. This latest round-up includes Criterion's release of Terry Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet playing a pair of fine young cannibals in "Bones and All," Ralph Fiennes serving up "The Menu," and a tooth-drilling double feature of "The Dentist" movies.

Bones And All

Luca Guadagnino's "Bones and All" is a beautiful road trip movie that just happens to be about cannibals. It's the 1980s, and Maren (Taylor Russell) has a big secret: she's a cannibal who can't resist eating human flesh. After an unfortunate incident involving a classmate, Maren hits the road. She eventually encounters Lee (Timothée Chalamet), another cannibal. It turns out there are cannibals all over the country, and they can sense each other. Lee and Maren fall...

Terry Gilliam’s grandest, most joyful fantasy is still a marvel, a fully adult adventure that will equally spark younger imaginations. Creative tricks and eye-popping Italo designs bring us a magical, satirical world of absurd wars, sultan’s hareems and a flight of fancy to the moon. John Neville’s ideal Baron is abetted by spunky Sarah Polley and a gallery of winning characterizations, from Eric Idle, Oliver Reed, Jonathan Pryce, Uma Thurman, Jack Purvis, Robin Williams, Valentina Cortese, Sting. So what if the Baron is history’s most notorious liar: we understand his complaint when performing a technically preposterous trip through outer space: “This is Precisely the sort of thing nobody Ever believes.”

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1166

1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 126 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 3, 2023 / 49.95

Starring: John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Charles McKeown,...

One word that comes to mind when you hear the title Die Hard is “definitive.” After all, it’s widely considered star Bruce Willis’ definitive role. Still, it’s also, arguably, the definitive action movie and even the definitive Christmas movie by some (in a debate that’s grown a bit tiresome). Indeed, Bruce Willis as John McClane, fighting terrorists in the Nakatomi skyscraper in Los Angeles, is a defining image of the eighties. Director John McTiernan, writers Steven E. De Souza and Jeb Stuart, and star Bruce Willis crafted a carnage-filled epic grounded by a very human hero – John McClane, who was a notable departure from the icons of the genre at the time, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. McClane was no superman. Instead, he was human, flawed and broken-hearted over his failed marriage. His only goal was to rescue his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) and get home for Christmas with his kids.

With the popularity of nostalgia-driven shows like "Stranger Things," interest in '80s pop culture always seems to be taking new and exciting directions. One such example is the fascination with the classic movies of the decade. Sure, everyone knows about the heavy hitters like "Back to the Future," " E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "The Terminator," and "The Breakfast Club." Yet, there are many other films from the 1980s that need respect, and that's what this list is about.

Here, we'll look at the movies of the '80s that deserve some love and devotion. These movies should become references in TV shows, have cosplays made of them, or at least be included in your next '80s movie marathon. So make sure to grab your favorite scrunchie, a bowl of popcorn, and a can of Tab (or whatever soda you can safely drink), so we can totally explore some fantastic...

Benjamin Franklin once famously claimed “in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” That might have been true in 1789 but, in 2022, it should probably be amended to include “remakes and reboots.” Remakes, reboots or whatever your preferred term may be, are increasingly commonplace in the world of moviemaking. It’s more common than most realize too. All that obscures that fact is that many have simply proven so bad that, without a VHS/DVD bargain bin to go to, they’ve been consigned to nothing more than distant memory. Who remembers the remakes of Jacob’s Ladder or Point Break, for example?

So when news first broke that Highlander was set to become the latest beloved cult classic to get rebooted for a modern audience, there was understandable apprehension. After all, there was an undeniably unique alchemy to the success of the original film. Something that’s never quite...

Monty Norman, the composer behind the iconic James Bond theme, has died at the age of 94.

A statement posted on his official website said, “It is with sadness we share the news that Monty Norman died on 11th July 2022 after a short illness.”

Norman most famously composed the score for “Dr. No,” the 1962 James Bond film starring Sean Connery. His theme for James Bond, as arranged by fellow Englishman John Barry, would go on to become the theme for the entire franchise.

As Norman said on his site, “We recognized we needed a fresh, contemporary sound for the main theme, and in the up-and-coming young John Barry we found a wonderful arranger, so the whole thing worked very well.”

But controversy erupted decades later when Barry claimed authorship of the theme, resulting in Norman suing the Times of London for libel over a 1997 story (“Theme Tune Wrangle Has 007 Shaken and...

Today, Varèse Sarabande Records announced the LP release of The Iron Giant (Deluxe Edition) Original Motion Picture Score, with music by Michael Kamen. Varèse Sarabande has previously released Kamen’s The Iron Giant score as a 49-minute program single LP. The 2-lp Deluxe Edition, which will release commercially on August 5, is available now for pre-order at all retailers. Based on the 1968 book of the […]

The post Varèse Sarabande Records To Release 2-lp Set of The Iron Giant Score appeared first on Shockya.com.

Varèse Sarabande Records is excited to announce the LP release of The Iron Giant (Deluxe Edition) Original Motion Picture Score with music by Michael Kamen. Varèse Sarabande has previously released Kamen’s The Iron Giant score as a 49-minute program single LP. The 2-lp Deluxe Edition is now available for pre-order at all retailers, with a green vinyl version exclusive to VareseSarabande.com and Intl.VareseSarabande.com. The album will release August 5.

The 2-lp package taps directly into the ethos of the film, with a pull tab opening the Giant’s die-cut eyes on the front jacket. Depending on which inner sleeve has been slotted in the first position directly behind the cover, the reveal is different. Open the eyes in normal or defense mode!

Watch the unboxing video.

Preorder here: https://found.ee/theirongiant

Creating The Iron Giant’s beautiful, sympathetic score was Michael Kamen—one of his last...

For some reason, out of the crop of new movies headed to Amazon Prime Video this month, many of them are associated with the 1980s. Not just movies from the Me Decade, although there are certainly a handful of classics from the Reagan era, but also movies that feel like they could have been made in that period – including a creature feature about rampaging dragons and a music-world spoof worthy of the Zaz team.

There’s also, of course, one of Steven Spielberg’s most powerful recent films and a 90s staple too. Either way, this month is best enjoyed with solid access to a time machine of your choosing (DeLorean not required but obviously encouraged).

Die Hard With a Vengeance 20th Century

Ho ho ho, “Die Hard” is just as good even if it’s not Christmastime. The John McTiernan-directed classic, which is a landmark action film and...

When moviegoers think of action movies, the soundtrack usually isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Heroes like John McClane and sequences like Oldboy’s hallway fight stand out more than the music playing in the background. As a result, most action movie scores are made up of generic, forgettable orchestrations.

Related: 10 Action Movies With The Best Re-Watch Value

But that’s what makes the best action movie soundtracks stand out so much. Whether a composer like Michael Kamen is giving a movie its own sound or a director like Edgar Wright is providing a personal playlist, there are plenty of action movies with awesome soundtracks.

Welcome back to Let’s Scare Bryan to Death! You may know this month’s guest, Phil Nobile Jr., as the Editor-in-Chief of an up-and-coming horror outlet called (checks notes) Fangoria magazine. You may have only heard of them if you’re one of our more hardcore horror fans, but I highly recommend you keep up with them because I think they’re going places. In all seriousness, Nobile has been tirelessly steering the ship during Fango’s relaunch in 2018 and their change in ownership in 2020. He’s getting a variety of voices into the horror-verse not only through the print magazine, but also through a robust virtual platform and even a regular email newsletter.

In between all of this, Nobile found a little time to chat with me about David Cronenberg’s 1983 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dead Zone. You may remember I covered eXistenZ with Joe Lipsett a while back,...

Bucking the trends for ’80s crime films, Neil Jordan’s tale of a low-rung hood attached to a ‘complicated’ call girl becomes a love story about meaningful relationships. Sort of the ‘anti- Travis Bickle,’ Bob Hoskins’ low-class mug discovers emotions and an ability to commit that could even be called Chivalric. Michael Caine chills as an all-too real villain, the boss that doesn’t think Hoskins worthy of a straight answer. Topping it off, cinematographer Roger Pratt makes this possibly the best-looking British crime film in color.

Mona Lisa

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 107

1986 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 104 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 14, 2021 / 39.95

Starring: Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Caine, Clarke Peters, Sammi Davis, Kate Hardie, Zoe Nathenson.

Cinematography: Roger Pratt

Production Designer: Jamie Leonard

Costume Designer: Louise Frogley

Film Editor: Lesley Walker

Original Music: Michael Kamen

Written by Neil Jordan, David Leland

Produced by Patrick Cassavetti,...

It’s that magic hour right after dawn when Robin Hood and Maid Marian approach the water’s edge. With the sun still low enough to cast both figures in mythic silhouette, the couple is surrounded by a blanket of fog, looking as if they’ve just stepped off a storybook cover. For most of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ running time, the narrative and its music has built to this moment: A request, a kiss, and a declaration.

When Robin Hood asks the woman he loves to do him a favor—secret a message to her cousin—she doesn’t hesitate to say yes, but not for her King and not for her country. She simply says, “I’ll do it for you.” That is when composer Michael Kamen’s “Maid Marian” suite swells to operatic heights for the first time in the movie, losing itself in a swoon of its own orchestral making.

Hot...hotter....hottest! Take a trip with us back to 1988 here on Reel Action as we dig into Carl Weather's first solo star turn as the inimitable Action Jackson. Produced by genre mainstay Joel Silver, this has all the eighties hallmarks. One-liners, crazy over-the-top action, a massive body count, plus a score by Michael Kamen and Herbie Hancock, an early role for Sharon Stone, the late Prince protege Vanity as the love interest, and Craig T. Nelson - Coach himself - as the…...

A few years after Pink Floyd concluded its supersized world tour in support of A Momentary Lapse of Reason, they played a one-off gig in 1990 alongside Paul McCartney, Genesis, and Eric Clapton, among others — all winners of the prestigious Silver Clef Award, which honors outstanding services to the British music industry.

It took place at the Knebworth House in Hertfordshire, England, and Pink Floyd played some of their greatest hits, including “Wish You Were Here,” “Comfortably Numb,” and “Money.” Now the band is releasing the performances — which previously appeared in...

Last fall, 20 years after the first Symphony and Metallica concerts, the thrash-metal firebrands returned for the orchestral shows documented on their new album, S&M2. As with the 1999 outing, the group teamed up with the San Francisco Symphony, but they decided to make the sequel an even bigger event, performing two nights in a gargantuan arena and incorporating new songs that didn’t get the orchestral treatment the first time around. They even tried their hands at performing a classical piece with the Symphony.

“Picking the songs was just an exercise in balance,...

Metallica have refigured their crushing hit, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” with the San Francisco Symphony, for their upcoming S&M2 release, due out next Friday.

In the intro, Robert Trujillo plays the track’s apocalyptic descending bass line as the string section swells around it, while conductor Edwin Outwater jumps up and down with the rhythm. The string arrangement, which conductor Michael Kamen wrote for the original S&m concerts in 1999, also adds a little sparkle to the long, drawn-out guitar chords when James Hetfield sings.

The group recorded...

Versatile film, avant-garde classical, jazz and pop composer Ennio Morricone died in a Rome hospital after falling and breaking his leg, his lawyer Giorgio Assumma announced, according to Variety. He was 91.

Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.

Morricone...

It’s the day after Metallica played a stunning concert with the San Francisco Symphony at the city’s enormous new Chase Center, and guitarist Kirk Hammett is letting his hair down in a tank top at his favorite restaurant in Sonoma, California. He’s here for a photo shoot for an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone, but at the moment he’s reviewing video of last night’s rendition of “Nothing Else Matters,” which features a newly souped-up orchestral intro. The sight of it — or maybe the sound of...

For one night only, Metallica fans will soon be able to witness the combined forces of the world’s most famous heavy metal quartet and the San Francisco Symphony on the big screen.

The concert film “S&M2,” scheduled to hit theaters on October 9, will take viewers inside San Francisco’s Chase Center (now home to the Golden State Warriors) for the high-octane marriage of strings and metal that occurred on September 6. Coinciding with the twentieth anniversary of the original “S&m’” the concert made further history by serving as Chase Center’s inaugural event.

Though the change of venue meant the intimacy captured in Metallica’s first “S&m” — performed and recorded at the comparatively cozy Berkeley Community Theatre in 1999 — might be gone, the absence did not leave a void. Instead, as fans will soon experience, the atmosphere was palpably buzzing with excitement. Traveling from across the world, the crowd...

It always helps to know someone when you’re breaking into showbiz, and a familial connection to Pink Floyd led British-born Edward Shearmur to work with the late two-time Oscar nominated composer Michael Kamen, known for such scores as Brazil and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Handling a variety of tasks for more than a decade for Kamen, one of the takeaways for Shearmur was his mentor’s ability to improvise music literally on the stand before a live orchestra, giving prompt directions to each section of brass, percussion, woodwind, etc and weaving them all together.

It’s a talent that Shearmur literally used while he was writing the score to the Showtime Ben Stiller-directed limited series Escape at Dannemora. After getting a note from Stiller while he was on a plane, Shearmur literally wrote a piece of music while he had an orchestra at his disposal in a Nashville,...

No stranger to grand gestures, Metallica will make their latest Big Event even bigger when they bring their collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony — dubbed S&m2 — to the big screen later this fall. The band will film its two upcoming S&m concerts, which take place at San Francisco’s Chase Center on September 6th and 8th, and broadcast it in 3,000 theaters around the world on October 9th.

Tickets for the screenings go on sale tentatively August 7th. For more information visit the group’s specially dedicated page to the broadcast.

Could David Arnold return as composer to the James Bond series?

It was the obvious question to pose while he was talking about Amazon’s new “Good Omens” miniseries, for which he has composed the elaborate score.

“It’s a no-news situation,” Arnold told Variety about 007. “I’ve heard nothing. But my pencil is always sharpened for him if James comes around again. But if he doesn’t, I’ll be as excited to watch the new film as anyone else. I still love him, and I love all of the team over there.”

Arnold composed the scores for five consecutive Bond films: three with Pierce Brosnan and two starring Daniel Craig.

With singer Chris Cornell, he co-wrote “You Know My Name,” the theme song for “Casino Royale,” and earned a Grammy nomination for it; he also received a BAFTA nomination for that score.

Arnold has scored more 007 films than any composer since John Barry,...

It has taken Terry Gilliam 30 years to bring “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” to the big screen. His most notable attempt to make the film starred Johnny Depp and involved a doomed six-day shoot, captured in the documentary “Lost in La Mancha,” that ended in the set being washed away in a flash flood and Gilliam’s then-Quixote, Jean Rochefort, suffering a medical emergency and unable to ride a horse.

Though the failed 2001 shoot was the most dramatic, Gilliam has been painfully close to finishing the film countless times, as the project has constantly evolved with new players ever since he was promised $20 million in 1989 to tell his adapted version of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel. Just last year, the film was completed with the help of Amazon Studios — which pulled out days before the film premiered in Cannes, leaving Gilliam once again searching for a home. Now, the filmmaker...

American composer Marco Beltrami will be the guest of honor at the World Soundtrack Awards, part of the Ghent Film Festival, on Oct. 18 in Belgium.

Beltrami, a two-time Oscar nominee (for “3:10 to Yuma” and “The Hurt Locker”), recently scored the horror hit “A Quiet Place” and the Oscar winner for Best Documentary “Free Solo.” Music from both will be performed in a concert by the Brussels Philharmonic.

Festival music director Dirk Brossé, who will conduct, called Beltrami “an all-around composer whose music moves within the most diverse musical styles and genres. Dedicating considerable attention to melody and obsessed by rhythms, Marco offers a rich palette of both acoustic and electronic colors.”

The Ghent Film Festival runs from October 8 to 18 this year. It is widely considered one of the world’s leading events devoted primarily to film music; past concerts have featured such leading composers as Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone,...

Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony announced a concert marking the 20th anniversary of their 1999 live LP, S&M. The show, dubbed “S&M²,” is scheduled for Friday, September 6th, and will be the debut concert for the city’s Chase Center venue.

A Chase pre-sale runs from Tuesday, March 19th at noon through Thursday, March 21st at 11:59 a.m. Pt. General tickets go on sale Friday, March 22nd at 10 a.m. Pt.

“We’re honored to take part in the Grand Opening of the Chase Center in San Francisco as...

Nick Redman, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, award-winning soundtrack producer and co-founder of the Twilight Time video label, died Thursday afternoon, Jan. 17, at a Santa Monica Hospital, after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 63.

He was nominated for an Academy Award as producer of the 1996 documentary “The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage,” a look back at Sam Peckinpah’s controversial film. He also produced and directed the 1998 “A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers,” about the making of the Western classic, a prizewinner at multiple film festivals.

In 2007 he produced and directed the feature documentary “Becoming John Ford,” which debuted at the Venice International Film Festival and detailed the long and complex relationship between the famous director and 20th Century-Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck.

He made numerous other short films including profiles of actress Stella Stevens and film composers Basil Poledouris and Jerry Fielding.

With every reboot of a classic TV series, the producers face a key question: Reprise the musical theme of the old show or go for an entirely new sound appropriate to a new cast and concept?

Zack Estrin, executive producer of Netflix’s “Lost in Space,” available for streaming on April 13, chose the former, with a twist. “We’re maintaining the core spirit of the show — this great family survival adventure — and along with the rights to the show came this incredible trove of original John Williams compositions,” he says. “We wanted you to feel like you were in a great Steven Spielberg experience of a movie, and what better way to feel that than to have a hint of John Williams?”

The legendary composer, who was a frequent collaborator with “Lost in Space” creator Irwin Allen, wrote two themes for the sci-fi series, which aired on CBS from 1965-...

Paul Childs Feb 12, 2018

After Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves - and that song! - hit big, the song work of Bryan Adams was in high demand at the movies...

Last month, this site ran an article about the power of feel good pop music to lighten our mood. As soon as I read it I rushed home and put on some Bryan Adams. This wasn’t just a sudden whim. I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since 'that bloke who sings about the best days of his life' released 'that song from that film'.

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Everything I Do (I Do It For You) was massive hit in 1991. It reigned over the pop charts for what felt like forever and became a fashionable choice for recessional music and first dances at weddings,...