Composer Henry Jackman discusses scoring the Russo brothers'
Captain America: The Winter Soldier with HeyUGuys, which is currently being touted as possibly being the greatest Marvel Studios film to date. On crafting the score, Jackman stated:
"The score I’ve done recently, Captain America…The reason I like it particularly is because it’s 50% production and all the tricks I’ve learnt from spending years in the record industry but then it’s also got the kind of injection of symphonic, thematic, heroic music that all kind of merges into one musical, and hopefully coherent piece. You need a sort of perfect storm of circumstances to allow something radical to work in a film where you’re not just being self-conscious, where you’re not just trying to show off or whatever, and this [Captain America] was it. I can’t say too much because I know Marvel will shoot me, but Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a brilliant film that is part of the Marvel franchise but the directors John and Anthony Russo are geniuses. It’s a Marvel film that’s taking it one step further. They’ve made Captain America much more contemporary. The story is set in 2013, so it’s not a period film and it doesn’t have Indiana Jones style Nazis running around the place, it’s all set in the modern era and it’s a cross between a superhero and a modern political thriller so that’s already awesome.”
Jackman further talks about the themes and tones in the film and how that helped him craft the score:
"What’s great about that is because it’s a Captain America film you need these traditional, thematic elements which eventually come through in act three of the film, but also the film is super-contemporary. Plus, Winter Soldier is this crazy, dark, RoboCop-type figure who is somewhat human but mechanised, completely messed up. Slightly human but completely tortured and completely manipulated, but crucially mechanised. So I said you know what, I’m gonna do something completely crazy and dark for the Winter Soldier, and I’m just gonna go for it. I hadn’t worked with these directors before, and away from picture I just wrote a suite for the Winter Soldier that was about six or seven minutes long that I spent ages on and treated it like a record. The idea being that if I get this vibe right, if I nail this six or seven minute thing which I think is the essence of the character and it’s super radical and it’s not that traditional and not completely orchestral because I want to save some of that for Captain America, let’s just see what these guys say. I played it for them really loud, and after they were finished there was a bit of a silence, and then Joe [Russo] went “I love it! Awesome!”
Elsewhere, the Russo's themselves talk about introducing Emily VanCamp's Agent Carter, which they reiterate is merely a cameo role that sets up the character for future films.
"We introduce her as a character in this movie, but it’s sort of a soft introduction. here’s definitely the budding of [a romance], but it’s something that’s more left to future storytellers.
Are those future storytellers in another Captain America movie or in the more immediate, Avengers: Age of Ultron? We'll have to wait and see, when the press tour for the Winter Solder begins and VanCamp starts being peppered with questions about whether she'll appear in the Avengers sequel.
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier” picks up where “Marvel’s The Avengers” left off, as Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and teams up with Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, to battle a powerful yet shadowy enemy in present-day Washington, D.C. Starring Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Georges St-Pierre, Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones, Emily VanCamp and Maximiliano Hernández with Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Redford, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is directed by the team of Anthony and Joe Russo from a screenplay written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely and is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series, first published in 1941. Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige is producing the film. Executive producers on the project include Alan Fine, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo and Stan Lee. The creative production team on the film includes director of photography Trent Opaloch, production designer Peter Wenham, editors Jeffrey Ford, A.C.E. and Mary Jo Markey, A.C.E. and three time Oscar®-nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is set for release on April 4, 2014. |