Confirmed: Hans Zimmer Is Scoring Zack Snyder's SUPERMAN! Promises A "Reinvention"!

Beaks here...

You knew this was coming, but now it's official: Zack Snyder's SUPERMAN will not be carrying over John Williams's iconic main theme, first heard in Richard Donner's 1978 film and resurrected for Bryan Singer's 2005 continuation. Snyder has instead enlisted Hans Zimmer to score his top-down reinvention of the DC Comics superhero. Zimmer let the cat out of the bag at a DVD release party for INCEPTION this week, and discussed the challenge of following up Williams's unforgettable score with NBC San Diego's Scott Huver...

“It's a hard one,” mused Zimmer, “but I followed one of the most iconic things on 'Batman' with Chris as well, and it's the same thing. You are allowed to reinvent, but you have to try to be as good or at least as iconic and it has to resonate and it has to become a part of the zeitgeist. That's the job. On 'Gladiator' I remember people always talking about 'Spartacus' and I kept telling them, 'When you saw "Spartacus" and how it affected it you, that's how I want a modern audience to be affected by what we do now.' So I think ultimately you're supposed to reinvent.”

This was obviously inevitable and necessary. Any nod to the Christopher Reeve-era SUPERMAN films would be confusing and provoke unwanted nostalgia when the idea is to establish a clean break from the previous big-screen iteration (ala Nolan's BATMAN BEGINS). However, I am a bit concerned that Zimmer and his team will be scoring so many studio tentpoles over the next two years. Though the Zimmer gang surprised with their SHERLOCK HOLMES music, the composer's motifs, no matter how dressed up with unique instrumentation, are still instantly identifiable. I don't want any CRIMSON TIDE, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN or THE DARK KNIGHT in my SUPERMAN. Then again, who else would you go to for something as huge as this? Michael Giacchino? Aleaxandre Desplat? There aren't too many options out there. I'd like a good, rousing, major-key theme for the new SUPERMAN. Hans Zimmer's best work is typically minor key. Perhaps he'll work a variation on his uplifting main theme for BACKDRAFT - which felt overblown for Ron Howard's film, but would fit perfectly in a SUPERMAN movie. The film's final cue is also great.