Did Hans Zimmer Help With The Transformers 2 Score?

It’s already established that Steve Jablonksy is scoring the upcoming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, as he did with the first film. He gets the title ”Original Music” all to himself in the credits, which is kind of surprising considering the size of film this is undoubtedly going to be (following suit from the first).

However he’s clearly not going to be going at it entirely on his own…

Jablonsky is actually part of famous film composer Hans Zimmer’s (The Dark Knight, The Simpsons Movie and the two Pirates sequels, amongst many others) team Media Ventures, and the two of them work together all the time. So quite logically it seems that Jablonsky is getting a helping hand from Zimmer with keeping the music production side of things on track. Here’s what Jablonsky had to say recently:

“…I am [still] the composer on this film. It has all gotten rather complicated. The film is BIG, and now that we’ve got Linkin Park involved, Hans has kind of been helping me keep the production on track, because I’m so focused on writing the score at the moment.”

Jablonsky mentions Linkin Park as they are reportedly working on a new song with him for Revenge of the Fallen – if you remember, a version of their song “What I’ve Done” was used in the credits of the first movie. Just to expand on his overall thoughts of the score, here’s what Jablonsky added:

“In a nutshell, Michael Bay sent the new Linkin Park song over to my studio. Hans and I had a listen, and we both thought it was really cool, and it might be interesting to try incorporating some of those elements into the score. So we got the guys from the band down to the studio and talked about how to do that. They’re all really cool guys and really excited about adding some of their sounds to the score.”

Of the things which the first Transformers did right, the score was one of them. The score to Michael Bay’s movies are usually reflect the movies themselves – they are loud, brash, in-your-face and the furthest thing away from subtle as you could imagine (see Armageddon, The Rock and Pearl Harbor as prime examples of this). But for some reason that wasn’t so with Transformers, or at least not to the same degree.

I don’t think the score to the sequel will differ drastically from the first movie, so at least we’re pretty much guaranteed that something will be good about it…

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be released on June 24th.

Source: FirstShowing.net

Tags: transformers 2,

Andrew P.

Steve Jablonsky has proved himself over and over with creating complete and original sounds that provoke moving themes in scores. I am excited to get my hands on this new work. Steve has been working for quite some time on this score so I have very high expectations. Just the thought of having creative musical geniuses like Linkin Park adding to what would already be an epic score is just mind-blowing. Hans Zimmer basically plays the role of the safety net; making sure that the score is the best that it can be. No matter what people think about Zimmer as a musician, the first score transformers score wouldn't have been the same without his guidance. I respect him immensely as a musician and for the job that he does with scores that he is involved with.

Rock

Depending on how much of Linkin Park's musical influence gets into the score, I'll be bracing for the worst. Jablonsky did an exception job on the first score. The last thing this second one needs is a load of mindless guitar riffs and pointless rhythms.

Just stick with a fully-orchestral score.

Matt K

i thought their score for "batman begins" and "the dark knight" was perfect.

Jer

Thank goodness that Hans Zimmer isn't doing the score. The guy destroyed Batman Begins and The Dark Knight with his horrible concept of music and I've noticed a developing pattern in his scores... they repeat the same two bars of music over and over again. Pirates, Batman, and all of his other scores you can tell it's just a looping of the same theme. What a talent this guy has... phht.

Steve's score was amazing in Transformers and I am glad to hear that he is back on this one and they aren't turning it over to Linkin Park and Hans! Whew!! Thanks for the clarification Screenrant!!

David Hasselbach

Zimmer ALWAYS "helps".

He's the head honcho of MV and his eyes and hands are everywhere.
All the time.
It's called PRODUCING.

I am not ONE BIT surprised.

Jablonsky even carbon-copied the main theme of Assault on Precinct 13 for Transformers 1 just to please his "master".
(It's his fave-theme of all time.)

There's a reason why MV people are called "Zimmer-clones" in the score-biz.

Me? I love most of their stuff and worship a lot of Zimmer's older scores. No need to bash his concept.
His better pupils (Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell etc.) grow their own voice anyway and rock the cinematic world without his direct influence.

And that's what he always intended.