© 2009 Harry Gregson Composer Harry Gregson

EXCLUSIVE MUSIC INTERVIEW::

E-Notes: HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS SINKS HIS CLAWS INTO 'X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE'

One of action's busiest composers finally gets to show off his comic book claws

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER, Soundtrack Editor
Published 5/20/2009

He’s the best he as at what he does. And though Harry Gregson-Williams might not exactly have berserker rage in person, he’s given furiously exciting energy to such pulsating action scores THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, ENEMY OF THE STATE, SPY GAME, MAN ON FIRE and DÉJÀ VU, as well as the shoot ‘em up videogame saga of METAL GEAR SOLID. But while he’s one of the big guns in contemporary action scoring, Williams’ more mellifluous tones can also be heard in two NARNIA films, the first SHREK, the historical epic KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and the existential western SERAPHIM FALLS.

The British-born Williams is clearly a composer who knows how to play violence and mythmaking, two aspects that mightily come into play in X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, a film that represents the composer’s first stab at taking on a “comic book” movie. And he’s done it with all of the primal, percussive bravado that represents one of Marvel’s most charismatic and nihilistic figures. Here he takes on equally dynamic musical form courtesy of Williams’ talent for combining symphonic muscle with rhythmic, rock and roll energy. And as we get a glimpse into the character’s history, Williams uses all of his visceral tricks to create a truly epic sound, yet one that also finds the human being behind the adamantium claws, a wounded heart that doesn’t hesitate to slice through others.’



iF MAGAZINE: You’ve scored a ton of action, but WOLVERINE is your first real "super hero" score. From all the past music that's been done for comic book characters, what do you think your soundtrack needed to have for the genre?

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS: I think my score needed to be tailored to, and to work for, this movie alone –– I wasn’t aware that I was serving the needs of a whole genre or even that a “super hero” was involved here! I never saw this character as anything like Superman or Spiderman, for instance. Having said that I appreciated that Wolverine inevitably would take his place in a long line of movies based on comic book characters, and I set out to take this story and these characters on their own merits, and to give Hugh Jackman’s character his own musical identity.

iF: WOLVERINE is director Gavin Hood's first superhero movie as well, not to mention his first big Hollywood action film. Do you think he brought any new ideas to the musical table because of that?

GREGSON-WILLIAMS: Gavin’s naturally open and enthusiastic approach towards music proved to be very helpful to me as I worked on the score. Considering that much of the post-production period on this particular movie was quite fraught and tricky for everyone involved, his positive attitude was admirable. He is musical himself and therefore had no difficulty in expressing his ideas and his vision for the score. I really enjoyed working with him. In fact, it was his creativity and personality that led me to be involved in the movie in the first place.

iF: What kind of attitude do you think you bring to Wolverine? And do you think it’s in tone with the past scores that have been done for the character?

GREGSON-WILLIAMS: It was decided early on by the filmmakers that my score need not [pre] echo any musical material from the other X-Men movies since Wolverine concerns itself only with the origins of these characters. I am not familiar with any other score existing for Hugh Jackman’s character and as always I took my lead from what I saw on screen.

iF: Wolverine is a killing machine with a lot of buried humanity. How do you think your music brings it out?

GREGSON-WILLIAMS: Wolverine himself is certainly a character with more than one dimension and thematically his music needed to be versatile enough to underpin not only his heroic, and just actions, but also his dark and violent desire for revenge at all costs. His theme has a heroic capability but there is also an arc within the melody that is intentionally slightly off center and unpredictable in nature. Obviously a muscular approach not only to this melody, but to the arrangement and orchestration of the music surrounding the melody was needed. This, together with plenty of rhythmic drive, was always my intention and seemed to characterize Wolverine’s attitude and energy, particularly in his quest to understand and avenge Kayla’s death. Conversely, I went after a very calm and plaintive tone for her theme, scoring the scene where we see the tranquility of life these two characters had found in their cabin way up in the peaks of the Canadian Rockies. These, together with a dark and grizzly motif for Victor Creed served as my recurring thematic material.

iF: You like using choruses on your scores for NARNIA and KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Why did you think voices would suit Wolverine, and are they singing anything in particular?

GREGSON-WILLIAMS: I felt that a choral color would bring a dimension to the music that couldn’t be achieved in any other way. In order for the Choir to be singing about something (as opposed to Ahhh-ing and Oooo-ing) a text had to be found that wasn’t in any way liturgical, wasn’t in English or Latin or any other recognizable language, but had some meaning that was relevant to our story – plus of course it had to be singable! Difficult task, but with a bit of research an Old Norse epic poem named ‘Havamal’ was found. Thought to be from the 9th Century -- and nicely out of copyright! -- we were able to extract quite a few versus and construct a kind of libretto for the Choir.

iF: One standout cue in WOLVERINE is the main title sequence.

GREGSON-WILLIAMS: Although this scene appears at the top of the movie it somehow turned out to be the final cue to be written and recorded. This was due to the fact that the images kept changing, even the concept for the images kept changing, and consequently the edit never settled down long enough for me to properly score it, which was quite alarming. Ultimately, when something resembling a final cut did come to me it turned out to be a fabulous sequence to write for as it encapsulated Wolverine’s all-important relationship with his brother, Victor Creed. Also it reflected his character’s capacity for compassion and honor as well as out and out heroism. My challenge was to track Wolverine through this rollercoaster of emotions and at the same time absolutely indulge in the very comic book style of the title sequence itself.

iF: How did the WOLVERINE reshoots affect your final score?

GREGSON-WILLIAMS: What the reshoots meant for me was that I missed out on a bunch of time that I would have otherwise had with Gavin Hood -- getting to know him and his vision for the film. Throughout January, my first month on the film, he was in Canada dealing with the reshoots so it did make for rather a strange initiation in to the movie. But we had to make up for lost time on his return and I think we did.

iF: Later this summer we'll hear your score for the remake of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3. What was is like to step on for a new ride for such an iconic action film, and soundtrack?

GREGSON-WILLIAMS: [Director] Tony Scott put it best when he asked me to work on this movie, he said something like this: “H, I’ve taken the scenario of the original film – the idea. We’re not remaking the old film here, we’re creating a new movie that will have its own life and that is inspired by the original film’s story.”

iF: Having satirized your action approach for TEAM AMERICA and played it aggressively straight in WOLVERINE, what new places do you think your music can go in the genre you're most popular for?

GREGSON-WILLIAMS: It’s currently headed to Persia.

Hear Harry Gregson-Williams do what he does best for WOLVERINE HERE.

8686-8706

Reader Comments

Your Comments are always welcomed here

Your name?	Your location?
Tell us what you think?
Enter Security Code: Load New Code