James Horner Revolutionizes Film Scoring with Avatar
When ASCAP composer James Horner agreed to score the highly-anticipated film Avatar, he promised director James Cameron that he wouldn't take on any additional work for a year-and-a-half. The time commitment is impressive enough - but Horner still couldn't have predicted how complicated the project would be. As he recently told the UK Times Online, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken." A statement like that is more than hyperbole when it comes from the Academy Award-winning composer known for his sweeping scores to film epics like Glory, Braveheart and Titanic, the latter of which yielded the best-selling soundtrack of all time.
Avatar is a reunion project for Horner and Cameron, who previously joined forces on Titanic and Aliens. The two have built a level of trust over the years, based on a mutual appreciation of taking chances. With Avatar, Cameron set out to revolutionize cinema with the visual seamlessness of his CGI and human casts. Horner also wanted to challenge and push the audience, and ended up creating an immersive sound world with an unprecedented palette of colors for Avatar. But Horner was careful to keep the score grounded in the richly emotional musical language that is his forte. "The emotional part is what affects people the most deeply," Horner tells the Times. "That's what they remember."
Avatar opens in theaters nationwide on December 18th. The film will be released in 2D and 3D formats, along with an IMAX 3D release in selected theaters.
