Rami Malek is rock icon Freddie Mercury in this first look photo from the upcoming Twentieth Century Fox/New Regency film BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY.
Tuesday, September 5, which would have been the singer’s 71st birthday. He died at the age of 45 in November 1991.
The Bryan Singer-helmed film chronicles Queen from 1970, when Mercury teamed with Brian May and Roger Taylor, until the band’s performance at Live Aid in 1985, six years before the singer died of complications from AIDS.
Their 1975 single, “Bohemian Rhapsody“, was number 1 for nine weeks (and a further five weeks in 1991) and is the third biggest selling single of all time in the UK. The band’s 1981 Greatest Hits album is the biggest selling album in UK history with 6.0 million copies sold by 2014. The band’s 1991 compilation Greatest Hits II is also one of the UK’s top ten biggest sellers of all time, with 3.8 million copies sold by 2012.
It returned to the chart at number two in 1992 following Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991, as well as its appearance in the film WAYNE’S WORLD, which revived its American popularity.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY is scheduled to be released in theaters on December 25, 2018.
The Uncanny X-Men – as they were once and sometimes called – have returned to show off their special abilities, remind us that being different is a gift not a curse, and of course, to save the world. However, the newest entry avoids the uncanny description even more by delivering a story that feels too normal or comfortable. Even for X-fans, this is a tedious page turner that’s rarely intriguing enough to make you want to see what happens in the next panel.
This time around the threat is one that feels all too familiar. In the opening prologue, a ritual in an Egyptian temple is performed to transform fresh-faced Oscar Isaac into the big blue baddie that the film is named after. But the transferring of powers or souls (or what have you) doesn’t go according to plan, burying the all-powerful mutant deep within the crumbling tomb and placing him in a coma-like state. In comes Moira (Rose Byre) from the previous installment X-MEN: FIRST CLASS to stumble upon the tomb centuries later in 1983. She witnesses his resurrection which in turns awakens something in our wheelchair bound professor (James McAvoy) to seek out the CIA agent to find out what she witnessed and knows. In the meantime, Xavier’s school begins to fill up with the classic characters like Cyclops (the emotionless and stilted Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner faring slightly better), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee trying his best to not look like he’s about to cry at any moment). As school gets back into session, Apocalypse goes on a quest to pick out his own army consisting of Storm (Alexandra Shipp – the only newcomer of the bunch that makes an impact), Psyclocke (Olivia Munn), Angel (Ben Hardy), and the real hero and heart of this trilogy of films, Magneto (Michael Fassbender). And guess what? He and his army want to destroy the world.
The script gets heavily bogged down by introducing so many of these new characters, and then is made worse by a by-the-book villain motivation that fuels the plot. More so than Simon Kinberg’s previous script for X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, the dialogue feels rote with the same comic book clichés we’ve heard in so many films before; rants about great power and warnings of letting go of anger. It would sound even more pedestrian if it wasn’t for the talented cast that sells it.
Fassbender and McAvoy have proven they can handle the great powers and great responsibility – Jennifer Lawrence, however, still seems like her energy and interest in the franchise changes scene to scene. Fassbender, in particular, makes his scenes in the first half of the film somewhat memorable through a side-story involving a wife and child. As is the case with the tortured character, things never end up well for Maggy and his anger is pushed to new limits, which leads him down a sullen and (dare I say) somewhat emotional path to Apocalypse. However, I guess director Bryan Singer felt the need for both him personally and the character to have a self-healing therapy session, as the destruction of a tragically historical location is completely destroyed in one of the most weirdly uncomfortable moments I’ve felt in a theater in a long, long while.
Who is new this time around and is given the most weight to bear is Oscar Isaac as the title villain. Given all the controversy over his look, voice, and size, I half-expected Singer to end up hiding him for most of the film to appease the fanboys ready with their torches and pitchforks. Nevertheless, Apocalypse is in the film quite a bit and never really shuts up. It’s the same sort of stuff we’ve heard from villains before about tearing down the old world to rebuild a new one, but Oscar Isaac at least doesn’t look or come across as silly like many have come to expect.
The main thing that holds back the film is the lack of intrigue. With X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, we were introduced to essentially new characters since they were younger versions of what we’ve seen before. And the cool swinging 60s vibe combined with the Cold War timeline added a nice dash of reality into the fantasy. With DAYS OF FUTURE PAST there is a sense of urgency with the film as it bounces back and forth between the future and the 70s. It also kept up on our toes as we watched Wolverine having to work with Magneto and others, not knowing if he can trust his accomplices. APOCALYPSE is missing a hook. Gone is the sense of intrigue. Aside from the new characters that you don’t really care as much about as the main ones, the only thing that we’re left to hang onto is the 80s setting and a villain who’s motivations we’ve seen before. Sure, hearing Eurhythmics is fun and cute, but the real life ideas and paranoia of the time are simply a quick mention on television as the story has to rush to introduce another character. “Here’s Psylocke! A character that looks really cool and speaks a total of five sentences!”
Subtlety and nuance are out the window in favor of broad strokes, all leading to a battle of the minds between the superheroes. With all the brainy talk about erasing the past for a brighter future, it feels almost ironic that so many fans (myself included) will be looking at the past films for relief as opposed to looking ahead at what the next films could offer. The new characters and costumes in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE may look as if they jumped right out of the comic panel, but new ideas are lost somewhere else in time.
OVERALL RATING: 2.5 out of 5
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE is now playing in theaters everywhere
Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.
Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign.
As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.
The cast includes Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Josh Helman, Lana Condor, Ben Hardy.
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven / Mystique, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, James McAvoy as Charles / Professor X, Lucas Till as Alex Summers / Havok and Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast, in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.
20th Century Fox has released terrific new posters and trailer for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.
Check out the trailer below, and get another look at Director Bryan Singer’s new X-Men film starring, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Josh Helman, Lana Condor, and Ben Hardy.
Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.
Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible.
Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign.
As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.
20th Century Fox has debuted a Big Game TV spot for director Bryan Singer’s X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.
The film hits theaters everywhere May 27-
Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.
Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Josh Helman, Lana Condor, Ben Hardy.
20th Century Fox has released the first trailer for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.
Check out the trailer below and get your first look at Director Bryan Singer’s new X-Men film starring, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Josh Helman, Lana Condor, and Ben Hardy.
Chat live with Director Bryan Singer. Follow along at @XMenMovies today starting at 12:30 PM PT on Twitter and Instagram. #AskSinger
Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE.
Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible.
Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign.
As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven / Mystique and Evan Peters as Peter / Quicksilver.Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler.Lana Condor is Jubilation Lee / Jubilee.Sophie Turner is Jean Grey.Tye Sheridan is Scott Summers/Cyclops.Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe / Storm.
This weekend sees the latest entry in the franchise that started it all: the big budget superhero movie block buster. Or more specifically, the Marvel superhero movie blockbuster. Long ago DC comics (now part of Warner Brothers) had big hits in 1978 with SUPERMAN, THE MOVIE and again in 1989 with BATMAN. Those flicks spawned sequels, but their success never expanded past those characters or to DC’s competitor, Marvel . After scoring a modest hit with 1998’s BLADE, the Marvel superheroes really arrived at the multiplexes with 2000’s X-MEN. SPIDER-MAN swung onto movie screens in 2002, and Marvel began its own studio in 2008 with the first IRON MAN. Tickets sales haven’t really subsided since and so now we have a new feature based on an early 1980’s comics storyline, X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, the first mutant movie, not counting last Summer’s solo spin-off THE WOLVERINE, since 2011’s X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. That surprise smash was a prequel to the original 2000-2006 trilogy with younger actors playing swingin’ sixties versions of the crew. Seems those sneaky Fox film makers and execs picked the PAST story in order to have the best of both worlds. So we’ve got two Magnetos, two Xaviers, and so on. uniting them all is the immortal Logan, the Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman for the seventh time (those are Bond numbers)! And rejoining the heroes is their original movie guide Bryan Singer who bowed out of CLASS and X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (he jumped ship to DC for a Superman reboot that, um, didn’t take). So, how’s this time-tripping tale? Let’s slap on our 3D specs (or not, but at least those glasses aren’t as clunky as Cerebro!) and take a field trip to that secluded school for gifted youngsters.
The film opens during a dark, almost pitch black time for humanity in the not-too-distant future. Earth’s cities are burned out husks with piles of bodies littering the streets thanks to the omnipresent, hovering sentinel robots. Not only do they round-up mutants, but they dispose of their human sympathizers. But there are pockets of resistance. In China, Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) leads a group of fellow mutants (including Colossus and Warpath) as they evade capture in a constant loop of hiding, fighting, and running. Kitty is able to send the consciousness of Bishop (Omar Sy) back in time (an hour or so) to his past body and warn his pals order to evade the bots. At the end of their latest skirmish the ragtag group spies a unfamiliar aircraft. It is another mutant group headed by Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen)! They’ve got a plan to use Kitty’s powers to go back fifty years to 1973 and prevent Raven AKA Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating inventor Dr. Bolivar Trask (Petre Dinklage) which inspires the creation of the killer androids. But trying to send someone back more than a few hours would tear the subject’s body apart. Unless they have heightened healing abilities. This is a job for the Wolverine AKA Logan (Jackman). In 1973 Logan heads to the shuttered school to convince the now powerless Xavier (James McAvoy) and Hank McCoy AKA the Beast (Nicholas Hoult) that they must save the future. The three must enlist their enemy Eric Lehnsherr AKA Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to break the chain of events before the sentinels in modern,er future, China track down and destroy the remaining X-Men.
Sounds a bit confusing? Not too worry, the expert cast guides the film effortlessly through the years. The movie’s anchor is the always entertaining Jackman as that dude with a bad tude’ (and claws that pop out of his knuckles). As he embarks on what may be his last mission, there’s a somber quality to Logan, but once he’s in the familiar 70’s territory (he is immortal) we get a bit more of his dry wit and even a few double takes (why is the bed rolling?). And the action scenes are just as energetic as when he donned that X-belt many moons ago. Plus he’s got great chemistry with all the incarnations of his comrades. Stewart brings the intelligence and gravitas to the father (or grandfather) figure leader of the team, while McAvoy as the younger Charles has an angry, frustrated, even haunted quality to the role. He’s equally dejected over losing his mind powers as much as losing the great love of his youth. And, as the trailer shows, there’s a corker of a scene between the two actors as young meets old. McKellen still gives an aristocratic nobility to Eric, especially as he floats in to the sky, his arms outstretched and cape billowing. As the 70’s Eric, Fassbenber adds an air of cool, as he attempts to conceal his own sinister agenda. Lawrence, as the woman both adored, is able to mask her appearance, but not her own master plan. She’s tired of being hunted and decides to go on the offensive, to be in charge of her own, and mutantkind’s fate. But once she’s in her true blue-skinned form, there’s a real vulnerability to her. The casting of Dinklage as the dark designer is an inspired choice. He’s no ranting bigot out to wipe out the different, even admitting an admiration for the beings his machines target. Returning team mates Hoult and Page offer terrific support as do veterans Shawn Ashmore as Iceman and the always radiant and exotic Halle Berry as Storm. But the film’s big scene stealer may be Evan Peters as the super quick Peter Maximoff AKA Quicksilver. He’s just in a few scenes, but his assistance on a mission with Logan, Charles, and Hank might be the most enjoyable movie superhero sequence since Loki met the Hulk. Let’s hope Joss Whedon’s take on the speed-demon in the upcoming Avengers sequel is at least half as entertaining.
Singer slips back into this mutant world with surprising ease. The time travel element seems to have brought an extra zing to the series much as it did with Star Trek in VI: THE VOYAGE HOME and FIRST CONTACT (perhaps that’s why we see a clip of Kirk on a TV set speaking about time jumping from the original series). The fashions, props, cars, and odd facial hair perfectly capture the period along with the retro tech used to document the mutants doing their thing in public. We see it from folks filming on choppy vidoetape, 16mm, and even Super 8 mm (I swear that’s Singer himself peering through the lens of that antique). In addition to time hopping, there a lot of great globe-hopping with action taking place in Paris, Saigon, and the states giving this titanic tale an epic quality missing from many multi-hero extravaganzas. John Ottman contributes a pulse -pounding score and clear, taut editing. This film takes its place amongst the better superhero films of recent memory (odd that Logan almost suffers the same fate as Captain American in his flick last month…and in the same place!). I would even say whole-heartedly that X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST is the best of the X film series. Let’s hope the whole group will get back together for another big-screen adventure in the very,very near future, because this time out they are truly Marvel-ous mutants! Actually they’re x-trordinary!
Sony Music is releasing the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of X-Men: Days of Future Past, featuring music composed by BAFTA Award winner John Ottman. The soundtrack will be available digitally on May 19 and on CD June 3.
John Ottman graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. One of his early assignments was to provide original music for the computer game I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. In 1996 he won a BAFTA award for editing THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and was later nominated for an Emmy Award for his score to the ABC series Fantasy Island.
Ottman’s range of composition takes in X-MEN 2, the dark comedy of THE CABLE GUY, the nightmares of GOTHIKA and ORPHAN, and the animated notes of ASTRO BOY.
With six films already released, X-Men is one of the most successful franchises in film history. It started in 2000 with the original X-Men movie, directed by Bryan Singer. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST is the seventh in the series and the third directed by Singer. The cast Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, and Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
It is a dual sequel to X-MEN: THE LAST STAND and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, and also follows up the story of THE WOLVERINE. The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. The beloved characters from the original X-Men film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from the past, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, in order to change a major historical event and fight in an epic battle that could save our future. The film opens nationwide this Friday.
In Variety’s review of the upcoming film, writer Justin Chang said, “Like many of Singer’s prior pics, the production benefits from the dual contributions of versatile editor-composer John Ottman — particularly evident in the story’s clean pacing and construction.”
In my recent phone conversation with Mr. Ottman, we discussed his return to the world of the Mutants. He was very honest and forthcoming about the trials and tribulations that come from editing and composing for this type of motion picture.
What’s it like to be back with Professor Charles Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine, and Mystique after being away for so long? “It was great to be back in that world especially since X-MEN 2 was my first big film that I got to do. I have fond memories of it because, in retrospect, it was a film that seemed to go very smoothly and had very little interference from the studio. I tend to look back on it as an exciting time, so it was awesome to go back into it.”
“On this film, with the story being focused on a young and broken Charles Xavier, I was given a musical opportunity to underscore his journey of rekindling the hope he’d lost. Charles Xavier finally gets his own theme.”
Ottman was brought on board to X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, ”pretty much at the tail end of pre-production – we were putting together the pre-visualizations and I came in and worked on those, even before we began shooting.”
The composer is no stranger to this epic movie series and to the superhero genre. As both composer and editor, Ottman is the musical right-hand man of Bryan Singer, with whom he collaborated on THE USUAL SUSPECTS as well as X-MEN 2. How does that work, especially with this type of big film?
“Before shooting there are all these animated versions of the scenes that we have to put together – you’re pre-conceiving the scenes, (previs), and we have a tremendous amount of those to do and many of them we were doing as we were shooting because there are so many sequences. With previs, we were already planning the shoot on the next thing we had to design. It’s a tremendous amount of work to design shot-by-shot and figure out what the scenes are going to be and how they’re going to be laid out.”
Once into the thick of it, I asked Ottman if he was composing to the edit or editing to the score.
“I wish I was doing either one, but when I’m editing the movie it’s so completely overwhelming that there’s no way I could even have a hope of going to my keyboard to write anything while I’m dealing with the cut of the film. Cutting the movie also involves storyboarding the scenes and designing previs’, so what I do is cut the whole film together at length. I don’t even put music on my scenes while I’m cutting them. I want to sit back and watch a film work without music and then once I put my editor’s cut together, then I put contemporary music in there for weeks after – that way we can screen the film for people at the studio. The actual score I don’t start writing for months after that.”
In combining the two jobs, Ottman says, “As I’m cutting, and putting sequences together in my head, I’m subliminally hearing and thinking about the kind of music it’s going to be, but what it’s actually going to be, I’m not sure yet.”
“All I do is worry about it from the moment I go to wherever we’re shooting, I’m worried about the score and when I’m going to write it, and how I’m going to do it. The editorial process never ends – especially on a complicated film. Then when the studio comes in with notes and the film starts going around in circles, and I have to go write the score somehow, yet I’m still tending to the recutting, various special-effects problems, looping the actors and test screenings. It never ends. There’s never really I time where I can say, ‘okay everybody, I’m going to go write the score now.’ I can’t put the film on hold.”
In Ottman’s ongoing, incredibly productive collaborative relationship with Singer, the two have developed a shorthand communication that allows their creative process to thrive. How did Ottman go from scoring films to “I think I’ll edit.”?
“It’s not a choice. It’s by gunpoint. The director (Bryan Singer) refuses to let me score the film unless I’m the editor, because we go way back to USC Film School and he depends on me to be his working partner.”
“After our first feature – PUBLIC ACCESS – won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, I was like, ‘well hell, I like scoring films.’ When we did SUSPECTS, I said, “Can I just score the film?” and he said, “Hell no,” and that blackmail basically continues to this day.”
“But it’s occurred to me, why in my right mind would I do such a thing and then leave my scoring career – it’s not financially a wise thing to do because I lose a lot of work during the time I’m in editing ‘jail.’ ”
“On the other side of it, I have a hand in creating the film I’m going to score. Sometimes after I’ve been scoring films for a while, I feel like a film score grunt. Being the editor on a film puts me in charge of something.”
Is any editor totally happy with the finished product? Ottman says, “Depends on the movie. Some movies yes, some movies no. This was a very complicated film. I likened this one to ‘Whack-the-mole’ game more than any other movie we’ve done because of the time travel element. With time travel, you solve one problem, you create a different one. You just have to keep whacking the mole until the smallest mole that pops up is the one you can live with. This is the logic we’re going with.”
“I look at the film… there’s some things I wish in retrospect we had had the time to do and so forth, but I’m generally very happy with it.”
Ottman’s involvement with X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST began on set, where he would meet with Singer before filming began, and continued through the recording of the orchestra and choir on the Fox scoring stage. Even with a big film like this, was a musically quiet score ever considered?
“I would love to write a little, quiet score. I have no intentions to fill a film with music, but you know it’s the nature of the beast with this type of movie. Once you light the fuse with the music, it’s hard to stop it. With this one we went in knowing this is going to be a big score, however having said, it’s not really that traditional of a score as I’ve done before. It’s more modern. There’s a lot more synthesizer elements in the score and many times the orchestra is simply sweeping something I’ve designed with synthesizer.”
Ottman wrote the soundtrack for X-MEN 2, the second in the X-Men series. Fans can expect to hear parts from the 2003 film.
“The future is very dark, and so by default the score is very dark. I did use elements from X-MEN 2 since that’s the one I scored. I resurrected that theme too, so that is the theme of X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.”
“I see X-MEN 2 as the most embraced X-MEN film. I’m a little biased, but I always felt that theme should have been a common thread throughout this film. I know the studio felt that way so I really didn’t have a hard time convincing them.”
Being a fan myself of his scores for SUPERMAN RETURNS, JACK THE GIANT SLAYER, the recent, NON-STOP, and especially VALKYRIE, the composer said he tries to keep the music to these action films in the background.
“With VALKYRIE, I set out to do a score that was very scant and sparse. Because I’m very involved in the sound design of the movie, I was very proud of all the typewriter and teletype machines sounds in VALKYRIE. I wanted it to sound raw and realistic and not film glossy. That movie is a caper. VALKYRIE was a trick of keeping the excitement going, editorially and musically, because there are a lot of old men talking in a room.”
“I did a very pulsating score and then I actually buried the score intentionally with sound effects. When people watch the movie, they’ll find there’s a lot of score there, but I want them to just feel it – not really hear it. The story is so good. I felt from day one very confident about that movie. At the end of the day it’s a great story.”
Ottman’s film scores have earned him a Saturn Award and several BMI Film Music Awards. As Hollywood’s only editor/composer of blockbusters, John Ottman also added director to his title with his directorial debut on the film URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT. Does he want to direct again? ”You know, I really do! If I could split myself into clones – one would be developing a film and getting ready to direct and the other one would be going for that dangling carrot that Bryan (Singer) always puts in front of my face with the X-MEN movies.”
“It’s hard because if I decide to go direct something, that’s going to take a long time to develop, I’m going to inevitably run into an X-MEN movie that I can’t say no to. At some point, I’m going to need to get the guts to say no and go and do something on my own for fun. At this point in my career, knock on wood, I can afford to just go off and do a little movie and not worry about it. I would love to do a little film.”
So just how keen is Ottman to the notion of another composer writing the score for one of his movies in the future? With a laugh, his reply was, “No. When I started in the early days of my career, my intention was, ‘well, I’ll direct and score movies’ so I can choose the ones I want to direct and score for. That was a crossroads for me – after URBAN LEGENDS. In retrospect, who knows if I made the right decision? I was offered countless Teen movies and I just said, ‘I don’t want to do Teen movies,’ and I said no. I felt like the Film Scoring community had written me off. So I went back to film scoring. Either I would have directed a bunch of teen movies, and by this time directing everything I wanted to, or my next film could’ve been a complete failure. Who knows? Believe it or not, URBAN LEGENDS was number one at the Box Office, so it was a success.”
As for his next project, Ottman has nothing intentionally planned. “After having double duty, it’s more than I would wish on my worst enemy. I think I’ll take some time and smell the roses and do some thinking about when I want to jump back into something.”
Aside from jokingly advising against it, Ottman’s advice to budding film composers is, “Do. Do. Do. Do everything that comes to you or that you may see or seek out – no matter how dumb or ridiculous the project seems. Take on that stupid little movie. It will train you to have a good attitude about things, creatively. You put yourself in the position of making something better and making yourself believe in something that may have initially started out as a stupid movie, but making yourself believe it’s going to be good because of your work on it. That really never changes.”
“Even to this day, I get on some terrible film, but by the end of it I’ve convinced myself that it’s a really good movie and I’ve helped make it better. The other advantage to have that mindset is the project you least expect is always the one that leads you somewhere. Some dumb little thing you do, someone’s brother’s uncle’s sister may have seen that little movie and it leads you to a place that you least expect. Basically, the more you do, the more you’re going to have an opportunity somewhere.”
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST hits theaters on May 23.
20th Century Fox has released a mini-featurette on star Hugh Jackman’s character, The Wolverine, from X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
Jackman gives details for the global X-Men X-Perience in this latest video. Follow along as the X-Men take over the world beginning May 10th through global premieres, live chats, and more.
The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
The beloved characters from the original “X-Men” film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from “X-Men: First Class,” in an epic battle that must change the past – to save our future.
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST stars Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Omar Sy, Peter Dinklage and Halle Berry.
Ian McKellan (Magneto) and Patrick Stewart (Xavier) unite in a brand new preview for director Bryan Singer’s X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
The first trailer was great. This second one is epic.
The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
The beloved characters from the original “X-Men” film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from “X-Men: First Class,” in an epic battle that must change the past – to save our future.
From 20th Century Fox, the film also stars Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Omar Sy, Peter Dinklage and Halle Berry.
Look for one of the most anticipated movies of Summer 2014 when X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST opens in theaters on May 23, 2014.
