'Dark Knight' Score Disqualified From Academy Awards Consideration
Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Awards, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in their continued efforts to avoid awarding Oscars to deserving efforts in film scores, has apparently disqualified Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's work on The Dark Knight. According to Variety (by way of In Contention), the same stipulation as to how many composers are technically listed on the cue sheet similarly screwed over their Batman Begins score -- the stipulation being that listing multiple names helps to award royalties to music editors and designers as well.I'd argue that the film -- which is bound to crack a billion bucks worldwide any day now, and likely to rack up considerable awards nominations regardless -- owes a great deal of its sustained visceral thrills to this rousing score, and in an ideal world, the December 9th release of the DVD would be enough for the Academy to whip around and shape up their bureaucratic brouhaha. To them, I simply ask this: why so serious?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-13-2008 @ 8:48AM
Fullman said...
What a shame, Dark Night's soundtrack was simply one of the best soundtracks I've heard, and Zimmer and Howard's collaboration on these two scores have given a whole new level to the soundtrack's quality.
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11-13-2008 @ 8:56AM
Matthew said...
Malarky! I bought the soundtrack a week after the release and it hasn't left the CD player in my car yet. (Yes, everyone who drivers with me HATES me.)
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11-13-2008 @ 9:14AM
Kevin said...
Totally agree. One of the first things I did after I saw the movie was download the whole soundtrack off of ITunes. Its a great, great movie, but without the music that accompanies it it would not be quite the thrill ride that it was. Definitely drew you into the tension, which then made the excellent scene with Dent in the police car even more intense because of the absence of the music. This should clearly be nominated for best score. What garbage.
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11-13-2008 @ 9:17AM
ML said...
Huh ... as scores move more into the domain of "music departments" are they even going to find entries from major films that are eligible? Shouldn't the award go to the best score? After all, if they're looking for a single person to pin an award on, they encounter big problems with "producer" (singular) as it is. A lot of things in movies are done by a lot of people at the direction of one or two, so maybe they should re-examine their rules.
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11-13-2008 @ 10:00AM
Janus said...
See i think these award people just have a problem with dark knight because its a comic book movie. i could be wrong but still could factor in. think about it these are snobs who probably would say that changling is on the same level as TDK. as we all know they arent at all. so i'm just saying or more suggesting that this could be a reason.
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11-13-2008 @ 10:11AM
Patrick said...
That's the second year in a row the best score of the year was snubbed by the Academy because of technicalities. It's too bad.
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11-13-2008 @ 10:10AM
DerelDuquette said...
Im not suprised, I have already prepared myself for when the Academy completely screws over The Dark Knight when it comes to nominations in any category.
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11-13-2008 @ 11:41AM
weston deboer said...
thats so terrible to hear. It was the only soundtrack that i bought this year.
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11-13-2008 @ 12:41PM
Jeremiah Moon said...
Most retarded thing I've read all day. That score was undeniably brilliant.
Plus, they did the same thing last year, with There Will Be Blood!! That score was easily the best of the year, and deserved the oscar.
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11-13-2008 @ 5:55PM
eugene said...
meh, the academy has become increasingly meaningless.
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11-13-2008 @ 5:55PM
filmsuki said...
Using a high pitch whining noise for the Joker's Theme was absolute genius!
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11-13-2008 @ 5:56PM
ML said...
Actually, giving them the benefit of the doubt, I don't think that they're targeting a comic book movie. I think they're applying the rule 16B5f:
"This expressly excludes from eligibility all of the following: scores assembled from the music of more than one composer."
http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/rules/rule16.html
I think they need to re-write the rules because collaboration on scores is happening more and more often (see my earlier post).
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11-14-2008 @ 12:42PM
ICON! said...
First off, very nice soundoff Mr. GOSS!! well played sir! I totally agree, this is so sad, the academy over the years is becoming rather meaningless and just utter rubbish. The Dark Knights score was amazing and is one of the main things that made the movie so awesome! screw them old bastards!
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11-14-2008 @ 9:35PM
JT said...
If they don't get a catscan and reset their brains, the Academy needs to be SHUT DOWN. They're getting absolutely out of hand, that bunch of biased, elitist, prickly snobs.
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