composer: Last News

Todd Gilchrist editor When Julee Cruise died last year on June 9, David Lynch fans lost another of the essential, even inextricable collaborators who became a part of their lives as a result of being part of his art. Her ethereal singing is synonymous with both “Blue Velvet” and the many incarnations of “Twin Peaks,” the latter of whose title theme she performed. If Cruise’s absence from the physical plane runs the risk of dimming her star in our collective memories, Sacred Bones’ vinyl reissue of her 1989 album “Floating Into the Night” offers a welcome opportunity to restore it to its full luster by letting listeners experience her work anew — carrying the legacy of her and Lynch’s historic collaboration, but unencumbered by the images he paired with her music.

McKinley Franklin editor Variety will publish its second annual 10 Artisans to Watch list on Oct. 18 and recognize the honorees at this year’s SCAD Savannah Film Festival.  In celebration of Variety’s continued coverage of crafts, the 10 artisans selected will be spotlighted in a panel conversation at the festival moderated by Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay. The list will include artisans across cinematography, costume design, editing, hair/makeup, production design, sound editing/design and visual effects.  The event will highlight the behind-the-scenes artists that are invaluable to this year’s best films and shows. 

Tim Gray Senior Vice President Have you OD’d on all the media attention for WB’s July 21 launch of “Barbie”? It’s understandable, but you have to cut her some slack: Mattel and Barbie have been waiting decades for this moment. Years ago, Universal homevideo exec Glenn Ross told Variety that U and Mattel had been thinking about films as far back as 2001: “We knew we should make Barbie a movie star. It has to be the same way you would feel when seeing a Meryl Streep movie.” He was speaking in 2007 about the animated films. The direct-to-DVD films debuted in 2001 and six years later, they had completed nine titles, with each selling more than a million copies.

Lewis Capaldi appears to have let his hair down with friends as he enjoyed a night out in London. Fans were happy to see the 26-year-old out and about and looking happier after he recently made the difficult decision to cancel his tour.The Scot decided to step back from concerts for a while, after admitting that was struggling with his newly diagnosed Tourette's syndrome. It came after his emotional Glastonbury set which saw him fighting to compose himself, leading to fans stepping in and singing for him.

A.D. Amorosi Tony Bennett was the last man standing – the saloon crooner, the jazz interpreter, the subtlest of stylists of the Great American Songbook, the man that Sinatra called the greatest popular singer in the world.“Your old man takes chances” is what Frank Sinatra told Danny Bennett, Tony’s son and manager. “When others zig, Tony zags,” said Danny. Those risks involved the vocal dynamics of grandeur (no Tony Bennett concert was complete without him shutting down all amplification, singing a cappella without a mic, and rocking the room), of pensive emotional nuance, of a whisper’s near-silence. With Bennett’s passing on Friday morning at age 96, after his struggle with Alzheimer’s since 2016 and retirement from the stage in 2021, his era of grace and elegance in vocal song is gone. He left a rich, long body of work that will last forever. Choosing 150, let alone 15, of Tony Bennett’s finest musical moments is a tough call to make with early sweeping singles such as “Because of You” and jazzy signatures such as “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” So Variety has mixed the hits with the rarities in touching on his legendary career.“Cold Cold Heart” (1951)Country songwriter Hank Williams had only written and released his melancholy romancer a year before Tony Bennett made it into a smash pop hit. But with its bold-faced vocal clarity and his tear-in-your-beer warble, it’s not hard to hear that an original interpretive singer was on his way up, and that he wore diversity on his sleeve as a song selector.

Jaden Thompson The music of Stephen Schwartz has undoubtedly changed the world. But, with the closure of the Mark Taper Forum and the L.A. arts scene in crisis, Schwartz, the Award-winning songwriter and lyricist behind hit Broadway musicals and Disney films that include “Wicked,” “Pippin,” “Pocahontas” and “Enchanted,” lamented the current state of commercial theater: “It’s a pretty bleak time right now. But there have been other bleak times.” He continues, “Post-pandemic it’s been challenging for new, more adventurous work to get produced and to find a foothold. Everything is pretty safe right now at a commercial point of view. There are a lot of brands out there… and it’s pretty difficult for interesting and original work to get through.”

Danny Elfman is being sued after reportedly failing to pay a settlement for alleged sexual harassment.A new report in Rolling Stone alleges that the composer was accused of sexual harassment in 2017 by Nomi Abadi and reached a settlement of $830,000 (£645,000).Now, it’s being reported that Elfman failed to pay two of the scheduled payments, totalling $85,000 (£65,000), and Abadi is taking him to court for breach of contract.Responding to the allegations, Elfman claimed the allegations were “vicious and wholly false,” adding: “I have done nothing indecent or wrong, and my lawyers stand ready to prove with voluminous evidence that these accusations are false.”Elfman’s representative also claimed that the settlement was made because his client was forced into making “impossible choice between settling and continuing his career and earning a living for his family or deciding to fight what at the time was an unwinnable battle to tell the truth”.In response, Abadi’s lawyer called the comments “directly contrary to the position he maintained in the underlying dispute and to the evidentiary record”.Abadi accused Elfman of exposing himself and masturbating in front of her on two occasions without her consent.Last year, Elfman brought The Nightmare Before Christmas to London, performing at Wembley Arena with Phoebe Bridgers appearing as Sally.Elfman also worked on the original score alongside Chris Bacon for Netflix’s recent smash-hit series Wednesday, with The Nightmare Before Christmas collaborator Tim Burton serving as executive producer.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Oppenheimer” composer Ludwig Göransson guesstimates there’s “about two and a half hours of music in the film,” which he recorded over the course of five days. The film marks his second collaboration with Christopher Nolan, after the pair first teamed up on 2020’s “Tenet.” Göransson describes the “Oppenheimer” score as “dynamic.” “Sometimes, it’s just the use of a singular instrument, and other times we bring in a whole ensemble. It fluctuates,” he says. Nolan’s most ambitious film, about the race to create a nuclear bomb during World War II, in turn became Göransson’s most ambitious score — it was different from anything he had done before.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French film guilds representing authors, directors and producers have released a joint letter pledging their “full solidarity” with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA double strike. “This battle that’s shaping tomorrow’s industry crosses borders. It’s also ours,” reads the letter, which was signed by the ARP (authors, directors, producers) and SRF (society of French directors), the governing body of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. The letter says the double strike “signals a turning point where the questions of sharing of wealth and integration of new models and AI are central.”

Danny Elfman is being sued.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent Prolific film and television composer Danny Elfman — known for creating “The Simpsons” theme song and the music behind “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Men In Black,” “Spider-Man” and most recently, Netflix’s “Wednesday” — is being sued for breach of contract for failing to make settlement payments due to allegations of sexual harassment. A new investigation in Rolling Stone claims that Elfman sexually harassed Nomi Abadi, a Grammy-nominated pianist and composer, in2015 and 2016. Elfman denies the claims. Abadi is now suing Elfman for breach of contract for failing to make all settlement payments, in new legal documents that have been reviewed by Variety.

Jaden Thompson “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz confirmed in an interview with Variety that production was shut down with just 10 days remaining to complete filming for Parts 1 and 2 of the film adaptation. Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for the original musical and collaborated again with book writer Winnie Holzman for the film adaptation, which stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. While Schwartz acknowledged that the timing was frustrating, he also expressed his solidarity with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. “It’s quite frustrating in a way because we have, I think, 10 days worth of shooting to go finish all the shooting for both movies…But on the other hand, I might as well declare it, I’m in great sympathy and support of the unions that are striking,” he said.

Dogstar is releasing its first album in 23 years and has dropped its lead single “Everything Turns Around” with an accompanying music video. The trio is composed of guitarist and vocalist Bret Domrose, drummer Rob Mailhouse and bassist Keanu Reeves confirmed that the title of their new album is Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees.

V is looking handsome as ever!

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. From sound engineers and screenwriters to celebrity makeup artists and stylists, Variety’s series “Ask an Insider” asks top professionals within the entertainment industry to share their must-have essentials, for work…and for play.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Robert Downey Jr. and Jimmy Fallon crashed a recent episode of “The Howard Stern Show” and revealed they auditioned together for Nancy Meyers’ 2006 romantic-comedy “The Holiday.” Downey Jr. read for the part later played by Jude Law, while Fallon auditioned for Jack Black’s role. Both actors knew they weren’t Meyers’ frontrunner picks at the time, and Downey Jr. was well aware Jude Law was stiff competition. “We both got called in just as seat fillers…[director Nancy Meyers] needed someone to read with the gals and we’re sitting there going, ‘It’s about to happen for us,’” Downey said, adding that he felt he was a “shoe-in” to steal the part away from Law. “And I was like, ‘I’ve got to have a better English accent than Jude Law at this point.’ And Winslet said, ‘That was the worst British accent I’ve ever heard.’ And I was like, ‘I’ll check out now, but I’m taking the gummy bears from the minibar.'”

Former centre-back Jaap Stam praised Manchester United ace Lisandro Martinez ahead of his second season at Old Trafford.

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” now playing in theaters. The “Mission: Impossible” movies have no shortage of death-defying stunts, but the Tom Cruise-starring action franchise is known for another iconic magic trick: its mask reveals. “Dead Reckoning Part One” features two mask reveals — in the first, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt uses a mask to infiltrate a meeting between CIA director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and officials from various intelligence agencies about a rogue artificial intelligence system, known as the Entity. The other is a face swap between Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a pickpocket who becomes embroiled in IMF’s hunt for the Entity, and Vanessa Kirby’s black-market arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, aka the White Widow.

AMC Networks has set Sunday, September 10 at 9 PM for the premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon on AMC and AMC+, the latest spinoff in TWD universe, starring Norman Reedus.

House of the Dragon” can continue filming in the U.K. despite the SAG-AFTRA actors strike, Variety can reveal. Just as the U.S. actors union announced a strike Thursday, sources confirmed that production is planned to proceed as scheduled on the second season of the “Game of Thrones” prequel. The HBO series’ cast is composed of primarily U.K. actors who are working under contracts governed by the local union, Equity. As such, the series is technically allowed to continue filming because Equity members aren’t legally allowed to strike in solidarity with the U.S. union.

Jon Burlingame Despite all the musical superstars who entered this year’s Emmy competition, only one – Ed Sheeran – managed to score when the 75th annual Emmy Award nominations were announced Wednesday. Sheeran was nominated (along with co-writers Max Martin and Foy Vance) for the song “A Beautiful Game” for the season 3 finale of “Ted Lasso,” one of two songs from the popular Apple TV+ series that made it into the music-and-lyrics category. Emmy’s 550-member music peer group ignored the original songs entered by Dolly Parton, David Byrne, Steve Martin, Kid Cudi, Donald Glover and Lainey Wilson, as well as those from such Oscar-winning tunesmiths as Alan Menken, Steven Schwartz, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.