I don’t go to the movies very often, so I don’t know if this is a widespread phenomenon, but when I went to see the latest Indiana Jones movie last week, one of the previews shown was of Australia. The music used in one part of the preview was from Patrick Doyle’s score of Henry V.
Is this common? Is it done because previews/trailers are produced before the film score is complete?
It’s pretty common. I think that same score was used in trailers for Tucker: The Man and His Dream (maybe Tuckerfan will come correct me if I’m wrong).
The score for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story has been used in I don’t know how many trailers for other movies.
I remember being struck hearing some pieces from the Amélie score in Goodbye, Stalin, because the former’s is so distinctive and (IMO) exceptional. I believe Yann Tiersen composed the latter as well, though, so I don’t know if you consider self-recycling to count or not.
You’ve got it. Finished scores are rarely available when trailers are done so they use other music that the studio has the rights to. There’s a few scores that you’ll hear over and over in those early trailers.
I heard the theme fromn The Rocketeer used in LOTS of Disney film trailers. It’s a good piece of music; they paid for it; why NOT recycle it?
Music was and probably stuill is re-used in film scores, too. A lot of Max Steiner’s score from King Kong ended up later in other films. I heard Louis and Bebe Barron’s electronic score from Forbidden Planet in other SF films.
And, as for music not being available for the trailers – the first trailer I saw for Star Wars in January of 1977 used a completely different (and BORING) score. If they’d used that music instead of the John Williams score, it moght’ve flopped.
For many years, the score for The Stunt Man showed up in trailers; it worked nicely because there was an “action packed” section that worked well with action movies and a “funny” section that worked well with comedies.
Film scores were sometimes recycled during the studio days. You paid for a score for one major film and your B pictures would use parts of it. Lots of Warner Brothers cartoons used songs from Warner Brothers movies, for instance.
There’s a piece of music written for Requiem for a Dream that has gotten a lot of reuse. Apparently it’s called Lux Aeterna, and here’s a list of other films and ads where it has popped up.
Recycling film scores is common in trailers, not so much in actual films- though it happens. The Godfather’s score was deemed ineligible for an Oscar since Nino Rota had originally written the iconic theme song for another movie, Fortunella.
and how many trailers have used Carmina Burana? Jeez.
I don’t understand the whole Carmina Burana thing at all…I’m frankly sick of hearing it…
I agree, it’s overused to point of parody. It’s a dynamic piece that makes a great dramatic point but c’mon, there are lots of other scores too!
Almost none. Can you name some for me?
In either the trailer or the film score of:
Warlock.
Excalibre
The Bachelor
Natural Born Killers
Jackass
Rat
Cheaper by the Dozen
The Doors
Detroit Rock City
The General’s Daughter
Speed
And that’s just off the top of my head.
It became a fad and then burnt out. There is a trailer for South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut that used it in a really funny way.
Ah, okay. You’re talking about movies older than a decade, some older than two decades. That may be why I can’t recall it appearing recently.
By the way, I note that the trailer for the new Pixar film Wall E, uses the theme from The Great Escape. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that used elsewhere.
Ever since 2001, Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra got used in a LOT of trailers, including Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Part I and Spaceballs.
Jerry Goldsmith used whole passages from his previous work on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn in Aliens. Ditto for many Bond movies reusing incidental music composed by John Barry from previous Bond films, especially From Russia With Love (not including the introductory Bond theme with Vic Flick’s iconic guitar riff which appears in some form in all of the Bond films).
As I recall, an early teaser for The Incredibles used the “Snow Chase” theme from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The actual incidental music in the film, however, was all original (albeit reminiscent of classic 'Sixties jazzy spy music of a variety of styles).
Stranger
Dammit, I was going to post that I thought that’s the kind of thing this thread would be about, but I couldn’t find a cite.
Ennio Morricone’s score for The Mission turned up in tons of trailers for years after that movie came out.
Brazil