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Posted by: neil on:23 Nov 2010 General » Hans Zimmer |
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Hans Zimmer
Zimmer has returned to the helm, having scored the new Sherlock Holmes film starring Robert Downey Jr. and is set to score Christopher Nolans summer blockbuster, Inception. After working with Nolan on 2008s "The Dark Knight", perhaps one of Zimmers more famous scores. He has proven time and time again that he is one of the most critically acclaimed composers, being an Oscar winner, and also the winner of several BAFTAS, Grammy, Academy and Golden Globe awards.
Zimmer has returned to the helm, having scored the new Sherlock Holmes film starring Robert Downey Jr. and is set to score Christopher Nolans summer blockbuster, Inception. After working with Nolan on 2008s "The Dark Knight", perhaps one of Zimmers more famous scores. He has proven time and time again that he is one of the most critically acclaimed composers, being an Oscar winner, and also the winner of several BAFTAS, Grammy, Academy and Golden Globe awards.
Hans Zimmer was born in Frankfurt, and moved to London a few years after the
death of his father, on which he comments, "My father died when I was just a
child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend."
Although devastated at this tragedy, he went on to start his musical career
playing keyboards and synthesizers, working with the new-wave band "The
Buggles", most famous for their hit "Video Killed the Radio Star", where he can
be seen briefly in the music video.
The 80s however is when Zimmer realised his true passion, composing for
film. This began when he met Stanley Myers, the composer of over sixty film
scores. Together, Zimmer and Myers co-founded the Lillie Yard Recording Studio
in London. The idea was to fuse Myers contemporary classical compositions with
Zimmers use of technology and electronic instruments, which in fact became
very much the prolific style of Hans Zimmer. In 1987, he wrote one of his most
remembered works from his time in the UK, the theme song to a TV game show
called "Going for Gold". During an interview with the BBC, Zimmer nostalgically
quipped; "Going For Gold was a lot of fun. Its the sort of stuff you do when
you dont have a career yet. God, I just felt so lucky because this thing paid
my rent for the longest time."
Shortly after this, he landed a job working on "Rain Men", a Hollywood film
directed by Barry Levinson, whose wife heard the soundtrack to "A World Apart",
for which Zimmer had composed the score. Both Levinson and his wife were
impressed and decided to take Zimmer on to score the film, which was later
nominated for an Academy Award. After several more Hollywood flicks, Zimmer
went on to compose "The Lion King" in 1994. This was the first time he had
worked on an animated film, and to keep with the theme of the film, he wanted
to record parts of the soundtrack in South Africa. Unfortunately, his work on "subversive" film, "The Power of One" led to risk of death if he was to
re-visit South Africa. Despite this, the score won an Academy Award, a Golden
Globe and two Grammys.
This Hollywood trend continued in the 00's and Zimmer scored for films such
as Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, The Last Samurai and The Simpsons Movie. Zimmer
often worked out of his comfort zone, especially for The Last Samurai, where
his lack of knowledge of Japanese music caused him to research and study, but
he felt that his knowledge was still limited. So, he was fairly surprised when
the Japanese told him that his soundtrack was authentic, and was even asked how
he knew so much about Japanese music. Meanwhile, Disney had re-hired him to
work on "The Pirates of the Caribbean", and was subsequently asked to reprise
his role on the two sequels. He then went on to work with fellow composer James
Newton-Howard on Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins", and the sequel, "The Dark
Knight". Personally, these two are amongst my favourite films (and scores of
course) of the past decade, with the compositions bringing something to the
screen which I have never really witnessed before; perfection. I am more than
confident that his score on "Inception" will be highly acclaimed, and I hope
you are all looking forward to seeing Nolan's 2010 blockbuster! Hopefully, with
Batman 3 being confirmed, Zimmer will rise to the challenge and take the reigns
once again for a feast of extraordinary compositions.