Danny Elfman - Hero Complex Interview 19-11-10

[Paul (ral)]

From http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/11/19/danny-elfman-interview/

Danny Elfman: ?Batman? was by far the most difficult. I had never done a big film. There was a lot of pressure to bring in another composer. There were actually two different camps wrestling me out of place. One, the initial idea of Jon Peters, was to have Michael Jackson, Prince and George Michael score the film. Prince would do the Joker theme; Michael would do the Batman theme; George Michael would do the love theme. That didn?t really leave much room for me to do anything. Then there was another sensible voice from Warner Bros. to bring in a composer like a John Williams or somebody like that who could do a big film. There was one side wanting it to be like a pop thing, totally different than anybody was expecting. And then the Michael Jackson and George Michael thing kind of fell away and they were just left with Prince. They wanted me to co-write the score with Prince, and I didn?t want to do that.

I really had to prove myself. There were a lot of voices against me, which I completely understand. I?d done nothing but comedies, quirky comedies. I didn?t even know myself if I could do that movie. I felt like, given a chance, I could come up with something. It was my 10th film; I was just confident enough to think, ?Maybe I could pull this off and bring in something original.? But I was wrestling with my own demons ? ?what if I?m wrong, what if I?m not ready, what if I?m not capable, what if they?re right, what if they do need a more experienced composer for this?? The only thing I knew I didn?t want to do was collaborate. It was tough. I had to really hang in there and there was a period where I had to step down and then got called back in. That was a tough fight on every level.

[gordonblu]

And all of his perseverance paid off BIG TIME! I know a lot of you prefer the BR score, but for me there is something magical about the first one that none of Danny's other scores(or even any score) has come close to re-capturing.

I do love the BR score, though, it's a VERY close second in my book.

[Gotham Knight]

I remember Danny discussing on the SE DVD how Peters was undecided with him until he heard some of what he had.