howard shore Tagged Articles at Cinematical

A scant week after Sir Ian McKellan confirmed he would (if asked) return as Gandalf, comes another good sign for The Hobbit. Composer Howard Shore recently attended a live performance of the Lord of the Rings score in Switzerland. When asked whether he would be returning for The Hobbit, Shore confirmed that he is involved. Not only that, but he's been working on ideas since finishing the score for The Two Towers.

This isn't a complete shock, as he had discussed such a possibility before with Ain't It Cool News' ScoreKeeper, but given the ugly drama that has surrounded this poor movie, it is hard to remember who has jumped ship.

This comes by way of an e-mail to Ain't It Cool News, and I share their general feeling that these snippets mean The Hobbit is finally coming together. Hopefully, we'll have big official statements soon; at least some talk of casting. Something definite. I don't think we can all go through more delays over rights and lawsuits.

But at least this is a cheery bit of news. Honestly, I cannot wait to hear Shore tackle Tolkien's world again. The scores for LOTR are simply a masterpiece. If you ever get the chance to attend The Lord of the Rings Symphony, do! I caught it a few years ago (sadly, our symphony lacked the set up to project the maps and illustrations that generally accompany it) and it was fantastic. It is incomparable live, and will literally break your heart.

Howard Shore has composed the music for about a dozen of David Cronenberg's films, including Scanners, Dead Ringers and A History of Violence. But my favorite collaboration between these guys came in 1986's drop-dead heart-stoppingly brilliant The Fly. So successful was this partnership that the old friends recently announced that, along with Placido Domingo, they'll be turning their version of George Langelaan's The Fly into an opera. Not just a musical, mind you, but a full-bore (three character) opera piece! What a strange and intriguing idea.

According to The CBC, the trio will have their Fly opera open in Paris on July 1, 2008 before moving over to Los Angeles some time in September. The production will consist of a chorus, a 75-piece orchestra and three characters: a baritone, a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. As a diehard fan of the flick, I'm guessing the ill-fated Seth Brundle is the baritone, his lady love the soprano and the horribly awful Stathis Barnes as the tenor. Too bad I won't be anywhere near Paris next July or Los Angeles next September.

• Capote - Truman Capote spent five years researching In Cold Blood - the book that would be his last - and sophomore director Bennett Miller's film is a telling and rather literate fly-on-the-wall dramatization of that time. The biggest appeal is Philip Seymour Hoffman's bravura Oscar-winning performance as the eccentric author, which he takes beyond mere affectation and into full-on obsession as Capote's research into the 1959 murders of a Kansas family consumes him in every way. It is nice to see professional seether Catherine Keener in another nice-gal role, here as Capote friend and soon-to-be To Kill A Mockingbird scribe (Nell) Harper Lee. Miller and writer Dan Futterman (adapting Gerald Clarke's book) do not quite commit to a direction for the story, and humanizing killer Perry Smith (a dependable Clifton Collins Jr.) is time unwisely spent, though Hoffman, who also produced, sees that we remember the film for other reasons.