Whedonesque : Comments on 6131 : (SPOILER) David Newman doing Serenity film music.

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February 22 2005

(SPOILER) David Newman doing Serenity film music. A Wondercon report on Ain't It Cool News says Joss Whedon confirmed David Newman already working on Serenity score. Says WolfBro: "River's new theme nearly brought [Joss] to tears."

I don't think I've read this anywhere yet. Last thing I could find here was speculation about Ralston, Newman and Debney.

Edited: to add spoiler tag and link to IMDB page on this very busy composer.

Drifter | Firefly&Serenity | 10:04 CET | 15 comments total | tags:

It should have been his brother, Thomas Newman.

Fittztopher | February 22, 11:25 CET

The news wasn't linked directly, Drifter, but zandra mentioned it in her report from WonderCon.

SoddingNancyTribe | February 22, 11:52 CET

I think this may need a spoiler tag - there is definitely an extra (and, I suspect, important) spoiler in there in the description of the 5-minute Serenity clip. Be warned if you are trying to stay spoiler free!

catalyst2 | February 22, 12:21 CET

I'm unfamiliar with David Newman's work, or at least his name -- maybe I'd recognize his work if I heard it. Anyone who's more knowledgeable of his past projects care to enlighten me as to why (or why not) he's a good choice for the movie?

Wiseblood | February 22, 12:32 CET

I've the same question, Wiseblood. The name is too common to do an effective search on the 'net. Anyone?

Madhatter | February 22, 12:38 CET

Here's his page on the imdb.

Caroline | February 22, 12:47 CET

Ahh, thank you Caroline. Well, a lot of work but nothing remarkable. Working with Joss though, he has the chops.

Madhatter | February 22, 13:04 CET

Anyone who worked on Battle Beyond the Stars gets my full attention. And hey he wrote the music for Galaxy Quest. I don't think we can go wrong with this guy.

Simon | February 22, 13:24 CET

The music for Galaxy Quest was excellent, so I view this as shiny news indeed....

[ edited by krad on 2005-02-22 17:50 ]

krad | February 22, 19:50 CET

True, the musical score for 'Battle Beyond the Stars' was outstanding indeed. Can't recall the last I viewed 'Galaxy Quest', I'll have to give that movie another watch soon. Whatever the case, I'm sure David Newman will do an outstanding score for 'Serenity'.

Madhatter | February 22, 23:42 CET

Ah, Madhatter, I watch Galaxy Quest about once a month. Deeply, deeply love it. And began to love it even more when I belatedly discovered that it was none other than Robin Sachs playing General Sarris.

I did notice that comedies seem to be disproportionately represented in David Newman's filmography. Don't know if that's significant in any way, it just jumped out at me is all.

SoddingNancyTribe | February 22, 23:50 CET

Okay - the Bill and Ted movies? Galaxy Quest (one of my all time favourite movies)? Bedazzled? Death to Smoochy? Wow, this guy is going to do great.

ReeQueen | February 22, 23:55 CET

Actually, if you look through David Newman's work you soon notice that he's done almost nothing but comedic movies... I mean, sure, Firefly has obvious humorous undertones, but I really want the score to be a dramatic score first and foremost.

Djungelurban | February 23, 00:31 CET

Is it true about River's theme? I love her so I hope it is GREAT.

charisma | February 23, 00:37 CET

Actually, if you look through David Newman's work you soon notice that he's done almost nothing but comedic movies...

Forcorreo has posted an excellent Whedonesque thread on David Newman's background, including some pointers to an interview he did.

He mentions that he does a lot of comedies because... that's what he's done before. Producers tend to hire composers to do similar projects to what they've done before; it's often tough to break the stereotype.

From the interview:

[Interviewer]: You've been associated with a lot of pop-oriented comedies for which you've composed some interesting music, but unfortunately those scores are often not properly appreciated. Would you like to score more dramatic or serious pictures?

DN: Yeah, definitely. What I love the most in music is the dramatic, sweeping and epic type of tapestry. That's much more my nature than doing pop comedies.

-----

Two other quotes that I think speak well to Newman's doing Serenity:

I don't like lots of themes [e.g., musical cue used over and over again throughout movie, e.g., Darth Vadar's Theme] in a movie. I prefer the more constructionist view, that you have motives or a theme and you then develop it as the characters develop or change. To me, the metamorphosis in characters or situations is the essence of narrative fiction, which is the basis of most movies. You can't have too much material because it gets in the way.

But to tell you the truth, the thing I like to do most is to work on movies that I think are good.

[ edited by bookrats on 2005-02-23 03:01 ]

bookrats | February 23, 01:31 CET

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