An old score to settle

Film Here is an oddity. Anyone who bought the recent two-disc dvd release of King Kong might have watched the post-production diaries and noticed no mention of the Howard Shore score, but two describing the rush job of James Newton Howard trying to put together three hours of score in about two weeks. A quick look at the Kong Is King website and Shore's diary is still here. It's quite a sad affair in retrospect, but there isn't anything to indicate what the ruckus was about. Although you have to feel sorry for the New Zealand Orchestra and the concert hall which were engaged but ultimately went unused.

The number of 'world' instruments suggests that Shore's score would have been more percussive -- perhaps Peter Jackson was looking for something much more orchestral and that's were the 'creative differences' happened. Given that the man was composing apparently for over a year, I hope that his score might still be released on cd eventually, in much the same way that the composed (and replaced) work of Alex North for 2001 appeared a few years ago?

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