the-great-wallSimon Franglen revealed in a recent interview with Pop Culture Tonight that James Horner was contracted to score the upcoming fantasy epic The Great Wall before his death last summer. The job ultimately went to Ramin Djawadi who is composing the music for the film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau, Zhang Hanyu and Eddie Peng. Horner was also attached to score Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge and James Cameron’s Avatar sequels before he passed away. Franglen recently scored Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven, for which Horner had written several themes. Visit Awards Daily for the first full track from the score and check out our previous article for the full album details. The western premieres tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released nationwide on September 23.

  1. John Andrews says:

    He was also reported to be attached to Harald Zwart’s 12th Man film.

    I’m especially sad that he will not write Hacksaw Ridge. In April 2015, he said:
    “Um, I’m supposed to do two films. Funnily enough I’m going to do–and it’s extremely important to me historically–Mel’s next movie. He’s going to direct a film and it’s hugely important for him. He’s so brilliant and I want to be there in that moment in film history because I think Hollywood is so shallow, and what’s been done to him is so dreadful, and as a filmmaker he’s so brilliant… and it’ll only take one film–I just know how this stuff works–all he has to do is make one film and he’ll be re-embraced, whether it’s about the Maccabees or whatnot… And that’s what I’m working on next.”

  2. ubirajara says:

    What a depressing story: Horner was supposed to score the movie, but then suffered his accident and was replaced by Djawadi. Tell me about a downgrade…

    At least Gibson was able to bring Debney for Hacksaw Ridge. But I’m curious (and fearsome) to see what will be Cameron’s choice for the next Avatar movies. Maybe bring Brad Fiedel back from whatever he’s doing right now.

    • Everan says:

      I vote for either John Debney or James Newton Howard, they have similar adventurous style that Horner did in Avatar.

      Or John Powell too.

      • Ds says:

        I think John Powell would be my first choice.
        Then James Newton Howard because he’s like a chameleon, he can fit in any shoes and do any style.
        Of course I’d be delighted to see Hans Zimmer get the gig and deliver a new adventurous gigantic epic mega score like he did in the 2000’s. But I think he’s not that interested in that anymore.

        So, John Powell!!

        • ubirajara says:

          Yeah, both Powell and JNH would be awesome choices, and, along with Debney, they all have some really excellent action adventure scores on their careers.

          But the truth is that it’s very hard to predict who Cameron will choose. As a director, he only collaborated with three composers, one of which is now dead and the other is retired from film music. And I honestly don’t see him calling Silvestri again.

  3. PK says:

    yeah… and then rejected it and hired Rupert Gregson-Williams instead!

    • Ds says:

      We don’t know shit about that. Maybe it’s him, maybe it’s the studio, I guess we’ll know the official version soon enough…