Wow, James Horner is a Dick

[Soviet Heavy]

You probably don't know who James Horner is. Let me explain... no, it will take too long, let me sum up: James Horner is a film composer who's works include Aliens, Braveheart, Titanic and Troy. Today, I am talking about Troy.

Now, Troy is a fairly corny movie, and the score does absolutely nothing to hide that. However, what you might not know is that the film was originally scored by another composer called Gabriel Yared, who scored films like The Talented Mr Ripley and Cold Mountain. Apparently, his score was still being refined when test audiences were brought in to view Troy. They apparently reacted poorly to the score, and the producers hastily rejected Yared's work and hired Horner to do a replacement score in just a few weeks.

This is where the dick moment comes in. Horner decided to start trash talking Yared's score. according to the wiki article, he called it "atrocious", and saying "And it wasn't because Gabriel's not a gifted writer, it's because he just doesn't have any knowledge of writing film scores. Real film scores like that. And it was like -- It was so corny. It was unbelievable."
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/troy.html
EDIT - Found a source that wasn't currently in storage.

Pretty assholish comments for someone who was dragged in at the last minute. Horner has had issues with his ego. He did the score to Aliens under a similar time constraint. While I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because James Cameron is apparently a ***** to work for, his dismissive attitude towards another composer's work makes me wonder if he just wasn't being a bitchy prima donna instead.

For reference, here is James Horner's Troy.
Compared to Gabriel Yared's track for the same scene

Now, I don't care which one you like better, but I do challenge Horner's attitude that the Yared score is shit. To me, it invokes the old sword and sandal epics the film was playing too much better than the damn wailing choir in the Horner edition.

Now, I know that the blame here is squarely on the producers for their knee jerk reaction to the test audience, and I am rather dismayed that someone lost so much time and effort for something he clearly put his heart into. However, it also enlightened me that Horner is a bit of a jackass and a hypocrite upon further google searches. So yeah, kind of a dick move there Horner, you egotistical prick. For discussion value, between the two scores, which one would you have preferred for the film?

The quote apparently comes from an interview from the website Film Music Radio.
http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=163
Unfortunately, the mp3 download no longer exists, but comments seen here [http://www.soundsonline-forums.com/showthread.php?t=5543] and here [http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/troy.html] seem to confirm that this interview is the source.

 

[Marter]

So, from what I understand, Horner didn't lead to Yared's firing. It's not like he was already on the team, decided himself that Yared's score sucked, and then decided to take over. The director didn't like the comments that were given at test screenings, and decided to fire Yared, and subsequently hire Horner. Yes?

In which case, while not exactly nice or professional, Horner's comments are at least honest, which is something seems lost nowadays. Besides, he didn't exactly insult the man, just his work.

Really, it's more of a dick move on the studio/director's part by taking away 1 year from a man's life, reacting poorly to a couple of test screenings, and then hastily getting someone else to do it.

Unless of course, they wanted Horner all along and he wasn't available when work was scheduled to begin, and Yared was used more as stopgap than anything else. You never know.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

So, from what I understand, Horner didn't lead to Yared's firing. It's not like he was already on the team, decided himself that Yared's score sucked, and then decided to take over. The director didn't like the comments that were given at test screenings, and decided to fire Yared, and subsequently hire Horner. Yes?

In which case, while not exactly nice or professional, Horner's comments are at least honest, which is something seems lost nowadays. Besides, he didn't exactly insult the man, just his work.

Really, it's more of a dick move on the studio/director's part by taking away 1 year from a man's life, reacting poorly to a couple of test screenings, and then hastily getting someone else to do it.

Unless of course, they wanted Horner all along and he wasn't available when work was scheduled to begin, and Yared was used more as stopgap than anything else. You never know.

Yared was fired after the test audience reacted poorly, and Horner was hastily brought in as a replacement. I'm not going to argue Horner's honesty, but like you said, it is a pretty dick move to just fire a man for a year's worth of work, and then have his replacement throw it in his face.

I find it especially rude however when Horner accuses Yared of not having any knowledge of writing film scores. The dude won an oscar and was nominated for two grammys. It's especially hypocritical of Horner to lambast another composer for lacking knowledge of film scores when he himself has been accused of stealing from other film soundtracks.

 

[Marter]

Yared was fired after the test audience reacted poorly, and Horner was hastily brought in as a replacement. I'm not going to argue Horner's honesty, but like you said, it is a pretty dick move to just fire a man for a year's worth of work, and then have his replacement throw it in his face.

I find it especially rude however when Horner accuses Yared of not having any knowledge of writing film scores. The dude won an oscar and was nominated for two grammys. It's especially hypocritical of Horner to lambast another composer for lacking knowledge of film scores when he himself has been accused of stealing from other film soundtracks.

Perhaps he meant a specific kind of film score -- a historical epic in this case. Like ... we don't know the context that the quote was taken in, and Wikipedia's source currently leads to a "we're improving our forums so you can't see anything" page. So we can't read the full interview or even see if there was an interview. We just don't know, and I'm not about to call someone like that an asshole based on one quote that I can't even see the interview that contained it.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Yared was fired after the test audience reacted poorly, and Horner was hastily brought in as a replacement. I'm not going to argue Horner's honesty, but like you said, it is a pretty dick move to just fire a man for a year's worth of work, and then have his replacement throw it in his face.

I find it especially rude however when Horner accuses Yared of not having any knowledge of writing film scores. The dude won an oscar and was nominated for two grammys. It's especially hypocritical of Horner to lambast another composer for lacking knowledge of film scores when he himself has been accused of stealing from other film soundtracks.

Perhaps he meant a specific kind of film score -- a historical epic in this case. Like ... we don't know the context that the quote was taken in, and Wikipedia's source currently leads to a "we're improving our forums so you can't see anything" page. So we can't read the full interview or even see if there was an interview. We just don't know, and I'm not about to call someone like that an asshole based on one quote that I can't even see the interview that contained it.

Ughh, tell me about it. I'm on that forum and it acts up a lot. However, a quick google search did manage to find some more sources regarding the interview from which those quotes came.
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/troy.html
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=36997&forumID=1&archive=1
(This one apparently had an audio response, but I can't find it. Either way, the comments speak for the content.)

I also found this, which says something about Horner's artistic skill.
He seems to recycle more than Dragon Age 2.

 

[Marter]

snip

Yeah, fair enough. Not gonna read it all tonight, but he comes across as ... arrogant and not a particularly fun guy to be around.

I still say that the filmmakers pulling the stringers were bigger jerks in the whole situation, though.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

snip

Yeah, fair enough. Not gonna read it all tonight, but he comes across as ... arrogant and not a particularly fun guy to be around.

I still say that the filmmakers pulling the stringers were bigger jerks in the whole situation, though.

I definitely agree that the producers are more at blame here. It just opened my eyes a little that a guy who's music I found decent is a rather smug prick.

 

[Marter]

I definitely agree that the producers are more at blame here. It just opened my eyes a little that a guy who's music I found decent is a rather smug prick.

It's more of a shock to me that he'd vocalize it rather than just go "Yeah, the score just wasn't fitting or something -- I dunno, it was already gone when I got there."

Still really enjoyed Troy, though, and I don't think this guy's comments are gonna change that. >_>

 

[dyre]

I dunno, the Horner quote you put up there doesn't really have a credible source. Not wikipedia, but rather the source wikipedia cites (a Star Wars forum, and the interview isn't even found on that website as far as I can tell). As for the thing about him replacing Yared at the last minute, like you said, that's more of the director/producer's choice than his.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I dunno, the Horner quote you put up there doesn't really have a credible source. Not wikipedia, but rather the source wikipedia cites (a Star Wars forum, and the interview isn't even found on that website as far as I can tell). As for the thing about him replacing Yared at the last minute, like you said, that's more of the director/producer's choice than his.

I just don't feel that that gives Horner any right to start attacking another composer's music, especially when his own music faces its own share of criticism for reusing the same motifs and hooks over and over.

 

[dyre]

I dunno, the Horner quote you put up there doesn't really have a credible source. Not wikipedia, but rather the source wikipedia cites (a Star Wars forum, and the interview isn't even found on that website as far as I can tell). As for the thing about him replacing Yared at the last minute, like you said, that's more of the director/producer's choice than his.

I just don't feel that that gives Horner any right to start attacking another composer's music, especially when his own music faces its own share of criticism for reusing the same motifs and hooks over and over.

Huh? I just said the quote was from a untrustworthy (actually, nonexistent) source, not that it was justified if he actually said it :/

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I dunno, the Horner quote you put up there doesn't really have a credible source. Not wikipedia, but rather the source wikipedia cites (a Star Wars forum, and the interview isn't even found on that website as far as I can tell). As for the thing about him replacing Yared at the last minute, like you said, that's more of the director/producer's choice than his.

I just don't feel that that gives Horner any right to start attacking another composer's music, especially when his own music faces its own share of criticism for reusing the same motifs and hooks over and over.

Huh? I just said the quote was from a untrustworthy (actually, nonexistent) source, not that it was justified if he actually said it :/

Ah. Sorry about that. Yes, the JCF boards are currently being moved over to a new server at the moment. I did a google search, and the quote did show up again.
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/troy.html

 

[dyre]

I dunno, the Horner quote you put up there doesn't really have a credible source. Not wikipedia, but rather the source wikipedia cites (a Star Wars forum, and the interview isn't even found on that website as far as I can tell). As for the thing about him replacing Yared at the last minute, like you said, that's more of the director/producer's choice than his.

I just don't feel that that gives Horner any right to start attacking another composer's music, especially when his own music faces its own share of criticism for reusing the same motifs and hooks over and over.

Huh? I just said the quote was from a untrustworthy (actually, nonexistent) source, not that it was justified if he actually said it :/

Ah. Sorry about that. Yes, the JCF boards are currently being moved over to a new server at the moment. I did a google search, and the quote did show up again.
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/troy.html

Hmm, in that case, then yeah, Horner's a dick.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I dunno, the Horner quote you put up there doesn't really have a credible source. Not wikipedia, but rather the source wikipedia cites (a Star Wars forum, and the interview isn't even found on that website as far as I can tell). As for the thing about him replacing Yared at the last minute, like you said, that's more of the director/producer's choice than his.

I just don't feel that that gives Horner any right to start attacking another composer's music, especially when his own music faces its own share of criticism for reusing the same motifs and hooks over and over.

Huh? I just said the quote was from a untrustworthy (actually, nonexistent) source, not that it was justified if he actually said it :/

Ah. Sorry about that. Yes, the JCF boards are currently being moved over to a new server at the moment. I did a google search, and the quote did show up again.
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/troy.html

Hmm, in that case, then yeah, Horner's a dick.

Here, I found a partial transcript of the interview. This part isn't based on the Troy Controversy, but he's still an asshole in it.
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/i-want-to-see-a-james-horner-cut-of-the-new-world.200009444/

Spoiler

DANIEL SCHWEIGER: The New World is done by Terrence Malick, a very esoteric director. Especially in terms of his music and he has never used what anyone could consider a traditional score until The New World. What was it like working with the director who had such unique approaches to film music?

JAMES HORNER: I would sum up Terry as a brilliant photographer - and that?s where it stops. The images in The New World are stunning, in Thin Red Line are stunning. In Thin Red Line he was surrounded by a couple of three or four people, a wonderful editor, a wondurful sound effects person who guided him through the dubbing and a couple of other people. And on The New World they were not employed. And Terry shot The New World and the whole idea of The New World was going to be a love story between John Smith and Pocahontas. And there is no reason in the world why it could not have been as great love story as Titanic was. That was the premise he got hired on and that is the premise he promised everybody he was going to deliever. So he went out shooting the movie, went over time, and got beautiful images and everybody "Oh god, this is so beautiful". There were a couple of things that were pasted together by a couple of the experienced editors of the love scenes. "Oh, this gonna be great, absolutely great". Okay, he had eight editors working for him - two prestigeous, the rest out of the wood work and some assistants. There was so much film he was working on night - on night there was a crew, on day there was a crew. When I first saw it, it was a mishmash of unrelated scenes, complete mishmash. I said "Well Terry, you need to..." - he asked me what I thought - "You need to cohere this, I mean this scene should be there" or kinds of editing things were wrong. It was the first assembly and he is a very, very nice man. That was like in April and he was supposed to have a cut ready by May to look at. And that we missed, he missed his deadline and it was in middle of June we saw it, the studio saw it and it was the same thing I saw two days after he finished shooting. It has gone through two and a half month work and it was just the same state. This was when I first saw it and red lights start to go up everywhere because I?m getting close to my recording dates and this is unscoreable like this. He also knew what the music was. I played him scenes, I played himeverything on the piano and I had the feeling he does not really know what movie music was. He didn?t have any experience with real film music being presented to him. Even in Thin Red Line it was all cut up. Here I was writing music for him which he would say was beautiful and great and sounded great on the piano, whatever. But I knew - and I warned everybody - this man does not have a clue what to do with movie music or how it works, not a clue. He is gonna to hear his first cue and not know what to do with it and I warned everybody. I begged him to watch several of movies that have music in them very effectively. Be it One Flew Over the Cuckoo?s Nest, I mean I showed him all kinds of films or asked him to see all kinds of films that were head scores in them. He said he would, but he never did. And slowly the editorial team started to disintegrate. The good editors left and they brought in more asisstants and it was cut by a bunch of incompetence. There was no real editor. He continued on in that way asking for opinions and we were approaching recording recording and there were no scenes to record, there were no scenes to time. He had no structure, literally, no structure. Scene A that was should go to scene B to C to D a natural progression. He had it attached to scene Z and that was attached to scene X and that was attached to scene D. I mean, there was no way to score it. So what I did with the film company?s permission is I made sequences from myself. I had my music editors assemble sequences as I thought they should be or as they normally be. And we scored some of that and it was lovely, just what everybody had hoped would be intended by the film. And Terry saw it and immediately took it back to his editing room and cut it apart and we were still recording and I realized that it was just a waste of everybody?s money to keep recording that we were commited because we had hired the orchestra. So Terry was making this movie that was incomprehensable. Everybody told him it was unwatchable. Everybody. Everybody. And he had Final Cut and when a director has final cut everbody can scream and shout but unless you?re willing to really go head to head in combat you basiclally have to throb your hands and say "I have no control of this man." And if we get the reputation of taking a director?s cut film from a director and recutting it ourselves and releasing no one want to make movies with us. So the studio company let him go along. He never did preview it but he played it for the studio and there were 35 people would come to the screenings and slowly over the course of three hours - because it?s a three hour movie - they would walk out. The editor who had worked on The Thin Red Line begged Terry to fix the fim. It was a love story and Terry doesn?t feel those feelings. All I can say is that Terry is on the surface a stone and he does not know how to tell love stories to save his live. When we scored the movie he completely disassembled everything. The score made no sense anymore and he started to stick in Wagner over scenes and a Mozart piano concerto over an Indian attack everybody to a man thought he was insane. By this time I was no longer on, I basically said "f**k you" so I just did say a four letter word. I?m out of here. I?ve done my score. I thought what I have done was exactly what my brief was being hired, exactly what the studio wanted, exactly what the film supposed to be and the one who broke the bond was Terry. From the day he started editing to the final day when they kicked him off the dubbing stage he was just spending hour after hour doing nothing. It was like shuffling the tiles in a Rubik?s Cube. There was never a solution. All he was do was shuffle scene D over to scene X or Y would go up to A. Now that. Let?s try putting up A after D and putting D behind J. There wasn?t any gift of telling the movie. Terry doesn?t so this. And that was something we all learned about the great Terry. I never felt so letdown by a filmmaker in my life.

DANIEL SCHWEIGER: Well, I think, it?s a listing experience. There certainly is no letdown.


JAMES HORNER: Well, the cd is as I intended. I said to myself "This is not worth it. I want to resign." I?ll get my money anyway so to speak but I don?t care about the money. I want to do what is needed in the film and make a wonderful film. I kept telling Terry "Terry, this does not have any emotion in it. Don?t you understand?" He looked at it and he would say "I don?t know if emotion is important here." The whole movie goes by without you knowing that this girls is even called Pocahontas. I don?t even know if people noticed that. No one ever uses the word Pocahontas in the movie. I said "Terry, people, this is the name of the girl", she got this name of Rebecca when she wandered into the english fort. Nobody knew what her real indian name was and this was the name of this women up to the end of this movie. You never knew she was Pocahontas, there was never really a love story, it was only alluded to. It was a complete mishmash and what was released. What amazing is 50 million dollars later what was released in the cinema was the exact version of the movie I saw when it was first assembled. The only thing different was they had spent 40 million dollars in between editing, moving the Rubik?s Cube. Out came the other end the same movie and all the important people have resigned and said "Terry, you?re out of your mind.". That?s the story of The New World. It was the most disappointing experience I?ve ever had with a man because not only threw out my score - he loved my score - he didn?t have a clue what to do with it. He didn?t have a clue how to use music. So what he started to do was as I said take classicle pieces. But not even pieces the would be transparent and lovely. He was taking Wagner like a thick, thick planket or rock putting it on his movie and, I swear to god, on the dubbing stage everybody thought he was joking and he would bring up these musical solutions and take out the score and putting in Wagner or take out the score there and putting in Mozart. The cd is what I wrote for the movie and it makes a lovely cd but it?s the weirdest experience, he loved all the music, but he had not a clue. It?s not like he fired me and I?m bitter. What happened was I?m bitter because he did not make the movie he promised everybody he would make. Everybody felt betrayed, from the film company down to the editors. Everybody felt betrayed and this was the man who took the story that could have been one of the great love stories and was one of the great love stories in history and turned it into crap. And it?s because he doesn?t believe in those things, he doesn?t understand them and most importantly he has not an emotion in his body. He?s emotionless. He looks at a scene and it breaks everbody?s heart and there are 15 people in the room crying. When we scored a scene the orchestra came in because it looks so beautiful, its photography is so stunning and it was a scene we put together for scoring. It wasn?t Terry?s cut , it was more or less James Horner and his music editors? cut. So that we could have a structure to score to, otherwise it was just going to black film. There was no film to record to. It was a fifteen minutes sequence literally there were like 80 people. We played it like two or three times. He was in the room, all crying all thinking how moving it was, how brilliant it was - not the music, but the scene. They thought the picture was so beautiful and the story and everybody was so excited and I tought surely that showed Terry that he was on the wrong track. The primary editor Richard Chew etc were there and it was so clear what people longed for in the movie what the music brought out. But that?s not the movie Terry had in mind and he saw the reaction and he took that whole scene and, of course, but it back on the Rubik?s Cube stage and the whole thing was deconstructed and unwatchable again.

DANIEL SCHWEIGER: Music from james Horner?s original score "The New World - A Flame within"

 

[dyre]

I dunno, the Horner quote you put up there doesn't really have a credible source. Not wikipedia, but rather the source wikipedia cites (a Star Wars forum, and the interview isn't even found on that website as far as I can tell). As for the thing about him replacing Yared at the last minute, like you said, that's more of the director/producer's choice than his.

I just don't feel that that gives Horner any right to start attacking another composer's music, especially when his own music faces its own share of criticism for reusing the same motifs and hooks over and over.

Huh? I just said the quote was from a untrustworthy (actually, nonexistent) source, not that it was justified if he actually said it :/

Ah. Sorry about that. Yes, the JCF boards are currently being moved over to a new server at the moment. I did a google search, and the quote did show up again.
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/troy.html

Hmm, in that case, then yeah, Horner's a dick.

Here, I found a partial transcript of the interview. This part isn't based on the Troy Controversy, but he's still an asshole in it.
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/i-want-to-see-a-james-horner-cut-of-the-new-world.200009444/

Spoiler

DANIEL SCHWEIGER: The New World is done by Terrence Malick, a very esoteric director. Especially in terms of his music and he has never used what anyone could consider a traditional score until The New World. What was it like working with the director who had such unique approaches to film music?

JAMES HORNER: I would sum up Terry as a brilliant photographer - and that?s where it stops. The images in The New World are stunning, in Thin Red Line are stunning. In Thin Red Line he was surrounded by a couple of three or four people, a wonderful editor, a wondurful sound effects person who guided him through the dubbing and a couple of other people. And on The New World they were not employed. And Terry shot The New World and the whole idea of The New World was going to be a love story between John Smith and Pocahontas. And there is no reason in the world why it could not have been as great love story as Titanic was. That was the premise he got hired on and that is the premise he promised everybody he was going to deliever. So he went out shooting the movie, went over time, and got beautiful images and everybody "Oh god, this is so beautiful". There were a couple of things that were pasted together by a couple of the experienced editors of the love scenes. "Oh, this gonna be great, absolutely great". Okay, he had eight editors working for him - two prestigeous, the rest out of the wood work and some assistants. There was so much film he was working on night - on night there was a crew, on day there was a crew. When I first saw it, it was a mishmash of unrelated scenes, complete mishmash. I said "Well Terry, you need to..." - he asked me what I thought - "You need to cohere this, I mean this scene should be there" or kinds of editing things were wrong. It was the first assembly and he is a very, very nice man. That was like in April and he was supposed to have a cut ready by May to look at. And that we missed, he missed his deadline and it was in middle of June we saw it, the studio saw it and it was the same thing I saw two days after he finished shooting. It has gone through two and a half month work and it was just the same state. This was when I first saw it and red lights start to go up everywhere because I?m getting close to my recording dates and this is unscoreable like this. He also knew what the music was. I played him scenes, I played himeverything on the piano and I had the feeling he does not really know what movie music was. He didn?t have any experience with real film music being presented to him. Even in Thin Red Line it was all cut up. Here I was writing music for him which he would say was beautiful and great and sounded great on the piano, whatever. But I knew - and I warned everybody - this man does not have a clue what to do with movie music or how it works, not a clue. He is gonna to hear his first cue and not know what to do with it and I warned everybody. I begged him to watch several of movies that have music in them very effectively. Be it One Flew Over the Cuckoo?s Nest, I mean I showed him all kinds of films or asked him to see all kinds of films that were head scores in them. He said he would, but he never did. And slowly the editorial team started to disintegrate. The good editors left and they brought in more asisstants and it was cut by a bunch of incompetence. There was no real editor. He continued on in that way asking for opinions and we were approaching recording recording and there were no scenes to record, there were no scenes to time. He had no structure, literally, no structure. Scene A that was should go to scene B to C to D a natural progression. He had it attached to scene Z and that was attached to scene X and that was attached to scene D. I mean, there was no way to score it. So what I did with the film company?s permission is I made sequences from myself. I had my music editors assemble sequences as I thought they should be or as they normally be. And we scored some of that and it was lovely, just what everybody had hoped would be intended by the film. And Terry saw it and immediately took it back to his editing room and cut it apart and we were still recording and I realized that it was just a waste of everybody?s money to keep recording that we were commited because we had hired the orchestra. So Terry was making this movie that was incomprehensable. Everybody told him it was unwatchable. Everybody. Everybody. And he had Final Cut and when a director has final cut everbody can scream and shout but unless you?re willing to really go head to head in combat you basiclally have to throb your hands and say "I have no control of this man." And if we get the reputation of taking a director?s cut film from a director and recutting it ourselves and releasing no one want to make movies with us. So the studio company let him go along. He never did preview it but he played it for the studio and there were 35 people would come to the screenings and slowly over the course of three hours - because it?s a three hour movie - they would walk out. The editor who had worked on The Thin Red Line begged Terry to fix the fim. It was a love story and Terry doesn?t feel those feelings. All I can say is that Terry is on the surface a stone and he does not know how to tell love stories to save his live. When we scored the movie he completely disassembled everything. The score made no sense anymore and he started to stick in Wagner over scenes and a Mozart piano concerto over an Indian attack everybody to a man thought he was insane. By this time I was no longer on, I basically said "f**k you" so I just did say a four letter word. I?m out of here. I?ve done my score. I thought what I have done was exactly what my brief was being hired, exactly what the studio wanted, exactly what the film supposed to be and the one who broke the bond was Terry. From the day he started editing to the final day when they kicked him off the dubbing stage he was just spending hour after hour doing nothing. It was like shuffling the tiles in a Rubik?s Cube. There was never a solution. All he was do was shuffle scene D over to scene X or Y would go up to A. Now that. Let?s try putting up A after D and putting D behind J. There wasn?t any gift of telling the movie. Terry doesn?t so this. And that was something we all learned about the great Terry. I never felt so letdown by a filmmaker in my life.

DANIEL SCHWEIGER: Well, I think, it?s a listing experience. There certainly is no letdown.


JAMES HORNER: Well, the cd is as I intended. I said to myself "This is not worth it. I want to resign." I?ll get my money anyway so to speak but I don?t care about the money. I want to do what is needed in the film and make a wonderful film. I kept telling Terry "Terry, this does not have any emotion in it. Don?t you understand?" He looked at it and he would say "I don?t know if emotion is important here." The whole movie goes by without you knowing that this girls is even called Pocahontas. I don?t even know if people noticed that. No one ever uses the word Pocahontas in the movie. I said "Terry, people, this is the name of the girl", she got this name of Rebecca when she wandered into the english fort. Nobody knew what her real indian name was and this was the name of this women up to the end of this movie. You never knew she was Pocahontas, there was never really a love story, it was only alluded to. It was a complete mishmash and what was released. What amazing is 50 million dollars later what was released in the cinema was the exact version of the movie I saw when it was first assembled. The only thing different was they had spent 40 million dollars in between editing, moving the Rubik?s Cube. Out came the other end the same movie and all the important people have resigned and said "Terry, you?re out of your mind.". That?s the story of The New World. It was the most disappointing experience I?ve ever had with a man because not only threw out my score - he loved my score - he didn?t have a clue what to do with it. He didn?t have a clue how to use music. So what he started to do was as I said take classicle pieces. But not even pieces the would be transparent and lovely. He was taking Wagner like a thick, thick planket or rock putting it on his movie and, I swear to god, on the dubbing stage everybody thought he was joking and he would bring up these musical solutions and take out the score and putting in Wagner or take out the score there and putting in Mozart. The cd is what I wrote for the movie and it makes a lovely cd but it?s the weirdest experience, he loved all the music, but he had not a clue. It?s not like he fired me and I?m bitter. What happened was I?m bitter because he did not make the movie he promised everybody he would make. Everybody felt betrayed, from the film company down to the editors. Everybody felt betrayed and this was the man who took the story that could have been one of the great love stories and was one of the great love stories in history and turned it into crap. And it?s because he doesn?t believe in those things, he doesn?t understand them and most importantly he has not an emotion in his body. He?s emotionless. He looks at a scene and it breaks everbody?s heart and there are 15 people in the room crying. When we scored a scene the orchestra came in because it looks so beautiful, its photography is so stunning and it was a scene we put together for scoring. It wasn?t Terry?s cut , it was more or less James Horner and his music editors? cut. So that we could have a structure to score to, otherwise it was just going to black film. There was no film to record to. It was a fifteen minutes sequence literally there were like 80 people. We played it like two or three times. He was in the room, all crying all thinking how moving it was, how brilliant it was - not the music, but the scene. They thought the picture was so beautiful and the story and everybody was so excited and I tought surely that showed Terry that he was on the wrong track. The primary editor Richard Chew etc were there and it was so clear what people longed for in the movie what the music brought out. But that?s not the movie Terry had in mind and he saw the reaction and he took that whole scene and, of course, but it back on the Rubik?s Cube stage and the whole thing was deconstructed and unwatchable again.

DANIEL SCHWEIGER: Music from james Horner?s original score "The New World - A Flame within"

LOL, it's kinda weird because I also think Malik does great camera work and makes great scenes but fails to create any coherence in his films. But yeah, if I was working for the guy I wouldn't turn around and insult his work.