When composerJames Hornertragically died last year, it was a huge blow to the movie industry. The two-time Oscar-winning composer was responsible for creating many iconic pieces of film music ranging fromTitanictoBravehearttoA Beautiful Mindalong with too many others to mention here. Look over his full resume and be amazed. However, even though he died before filming began onAntoine Fuqua’sThe Magnificent Seven, you’ll notice he’s listed as doing the music along withSimon Franglen. The reason, as you’re able to watch Franglen explain in the interview above, is Horner was going to be very busy and he decided to get a jump onMagnificent Sevenby writing some of the themes of the film based on just reading the screenplay. After Horner died, Franglen, along with a few others, decided to hire an orchestra and fleshed out the music to present it to Fuqua as the last thing Horner had composed. After hearing the music, Fuqua asked Franglen to do the music for the film, and he balanced incorporating Horner’s themes with the additional music he had to compose.
Shortly after seeing the film at the Toronto International Film Festival, I sat down with Composer Simon Franglen for an extended interview. He talked about his relationship with James Horner, what was it like working with Fuqua and writing music during the editing process, how they decided to incorporateElmer Bernstein’soriginal iconic score into the remake, how he got involved inTerrence Malick’sVoyage of Time, and so much more. Check out what he had to say above and below you’ll find a list of everything we talked about.
Simon Franglen:
