Personal quote It's difficult to give a personal quote about the man you admire the most but it's sometimes even so easy to see why. Like all the other composers he has captured so many people, so many film music fans all over the world. Hans has put his own mark on the industry of today, he has created his own pattern and as of today it is known for its pure daring quality. I always felt that Hans Zimmer was a composer that brought something a bit different, a bit daring and new and always with a unique approach, that decided whether it was bad or good. The scores he composed have captured my interest from the day I started to explore the film music in all its diversity. And the reason why I maintained to like Hans Zimmer, is that I simply loved his musical language as he interpreted it himself. This keeps the industry alive, it accomplishes to bring more spirit in the world of film music today, with or without the approval of some enthusiasts. Biography Hans Florian Zimmer was born in Frankfurt, Germany on the 12th September in the year 1958. His career started in London where he began to compose jingles and produced the world hit "Video Killed the Radio Star" of The Buggles. By then Hans Zimmer became quite the pioneer in the usage of computers and synthesizers to produce music. He started to work with film composer Stanley Myers on small projects such as Moonlighting, Success is the Best Revenge, Eureka, and Insignificance. My Beautiful Laundrette became quite the movie hit and Zimmer was attached to his first real winner of his young career. Later he produced the successful and award winning score The Last Emperor and scored A World Apart, a soundtrack that changed his entire career. Barry Levinson was impressed with Hans Zimmer's result and he asked the German to be a part of his next project Rain Man, a heart warming dramatic movie with excellent performances and a gorgeous score. Rain Man in the end was nominated for an Oscar. This all started the rather impressive career and includes high profile movies with lesser and well known projects including Black Rain, Driving Miss Daisy, Days of Thunder, Thelma and Louise, Backdraft (still one of Hans Zimmer's most beloved scores), Radio Flyer, the African The Power of One, the brilliant and jazzy A League of their Own, Toys, Point of no Return, Cool Runnings, House of the Spirits and his Oscar for the mega hit The Lion King, this also resulted in the sales and the album became one of the best sold albums in history. Still favorites among Zimmer fans are the ethnically influenced Beyond Rangoon and the immense choral action packed Crimson Tide, both stand and show Hans Zimmer's versatile style more then enough. Action remained with Broken Arrow, The Fan and The Rock (wrote several cues) and Hans Zimmer also scored Muppet Treasure Island and his nominated The Preacher's Wife. 1998 offered high art including The Thin Red Line and The Prince of Egypt, both were nominated and 2 years later blockbusters Gladiator (received a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination) and Mission: Impossible 2. In 2000 he scored what should have been the next ultimate hit, Pearl Harbor and the classical inspired Hannibal of Ridley Scott. Hans Zimmer maintains to have a strong relation with directors such as Penny Marshall (Riding in Cars with Boys) and Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down, Matchstick Men). Recently he scored the great horror film The Ring, the ethnic war film Tears of the Sun and the animated Spirit. Zimmer kept pretty busy with King Arthur, the acclaimed music for the equally acclaimed The Last Samurai, Thunderbirds as the drama's Spanglish and The Weather Man. Later he followed the path of the acclaimed Batman Begins movie with James Newton Howard and has scored the blockbusters The Da Vinci Code and both Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. In between all that lies The Holiday, The Simpsons Movie, Frost/Nixon and The Dark Knight. Hans Zimmer has become one of the biggest influences in Hollywood and he stretched the limits with Media Ventures, he was the head of the company for many years before a dispute separated his friend Jay Rifkin and Hans apart, but also Hans is the head of Dreamworks Pictures.
A producer at DreamWorks listened to my music and after three
minutes she ran away screaming. A week later she called me to say that she was
having nightmares ever since. I thought, yeah this stuff is really good! And I
know no one bought the cd, but it was a great experiment and it is as Zimmer as
it gets. 1998 My first action movie, was original but only by virtue of my own stupidity. My lack of knowledge made it original. (on Black Rain) 1998 I'm reminded of Randy Newman's (rejected) score. I heard it and said, "I have never written an action cue as good as this. And I'm supposed to be good at action stuff." (on the rejected score of Randy Newman for Air Force One) 1998 People always ask me why hasn't the good music from Days of Thunder ever been released? Because there wasn't any good music in it! (on Days of Thunder) 1998 We had money for nine musicians and so
to spite the budget I hired the most useless, incongruous bunch of guys I could find. The
diversity gave us a great result! June 25, 2001 I always knew that I was going to write in a very different style for Pearl Harbor. I mean, I had already done Thin Red Line. Why would I want to do it again? (on Pearl Harbor) June 27, 2001 I'll admit, I had the matches out and was ready to burn the tapes! I seriously considered giving the record company enough money just to make it all disappear. (on The Wings of a Film CD) June 27, 2001 The best
publicity that The Thin Red Line ever got was when Jerry Bruckheimer put it on the trailer
to Pearl Harbor. Everyone wanted to know what that music was, and Bruckheimer
did more for The Thin Red Line than Fox ever did for that movie. December 17, 2003 Somebody asked me a few days ago why As Good As It Gets was European, why did I write a European score for a quintessentially American story? For me, it's because Jack Nicholson was crazy in the movie, and I felt one of the great things about America is how they always think we Europeans are crazy. (on As Good as it Gets) December 17, 2003 In the end, I spent a day and a half writing tunes, Klaus Badelt wrote a lot of stuff, and we rolled up our sleeves, got drunk, behaved in a debauched way, and produced a score !(on Pirates of the Caribbean) September 26, 2006 The whole point about the Pirates score was that it was trying to reinvent the whole genre, and it was so much fun just dashing out these tunes on the first one and going 'okay, fine, I've done my homework, I've reinvented the genre, for better or for worse. But on the second film I had to go back and really come to grips with what those tunes were, and I kept thinking, 'gosh, I wish I'd had one more day on the first one because I wouldn't have written myself into this corner! (on Pirates of the Caribbean 2) September 26, 2006 I'm
always breaking the rules, I can't help myself! I wanted to write a quiet
score, I didn't want it to get really, really pompous, and the problem
with the CD is that it feels a bit like I don't have any proper themes,
but I do. The CD is too short! This is a real long-form piece, so if the
CD was twice as long you would have gotten the repetition and the
developments, which you just don't get on the CD as it is.
Links to Personal Webpages:
Highlight
of his career: |
The Works ллллл Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World ллллл лллл Pirates
of the Caribbean: лллл Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest ллл Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron ллл лл Chill Factor
Compilation лллл The Wings of a Film: The лллл The
Essential Hans Zimmer ллл |
