Hans Zimmer Says He’s Driving ‘Dune’ Team Crazy with So Many Score Ideas and Experiments
Zack Sharf
Does Hans Zimmer ever get tired of writing original scores for movies? Yes, but then projects like Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune” come along. In a new interview with Variety, the Oscar-winning composer says the possibilities for the “Dune” score are so endless that “I’m driving everybody crazy because I’m so full of ideas.” Zimmer is in the middle of drafting compositions and experimenting with sounds for the “Dune” score, and he calls collaborating with Villeneuve “totally and utterly inspiring.”
“Right now I’m in the middle of making these sounds,” Zimmer said. “I just have these ideas, and it’s like this every day. I’m doing all these experiments, and I have no idea if any of them will ever really end up in the movie. But we are so dedicated, trying to do something different, to do solid and honorable work, and do justice to the book.”
Zimmer is concerning himself with the music at the moment and not thinking too hard about how he’ll pull off recording with a big orchestra amid the pandemic.
“So far I’m doing okay,” Zimmer said. “There are possibilities opening up. Recording is going on in London and Vienna. And look, I’ve always used odd lineups, and I’ve sort of, for better or for worse, invented a way of working where you can have different small sections come in at different times. So to me, that’s not so different. Working remotely is horrible, but I’ve done it. And if we have to do it like this, we’ll do it like this.”
Zimmer previously said “Dune” was impossible to turn down because Frank Herbert’s novel was one of his favorite books as a teenager. Working with Villeneuve and creating music for “Dune” was so alluring that Zimmer even turned down reuniting with longtime collaborator Christopher Nolan for “Tenet.”
“I have to do [“Dune”],” Zimmer told The Playlist last summer. “Chris [Nolan] understands I have to do it. He’s going to be just fine.”
Warner Bros. has “Dune” on the release calendar for December 18. Music and scoring is often one of the last parts of the post-production process, so Zimmer remains on track to complete the score in time.
