Regarded as one of the finest score composer cum music producers, Hans Zimmer has entertained audiences worldwide with his immaculate work for years now. Not only has he given his music to some of the most remarkable films of all time like Interstellar and Gladiator, and even to numerous superhero movies like The Dark Knight film series, but he has also worked with some of the best filmmakers of all time.
This list includes his longtime work partner, Christopher Nolan. However, there was a time in Zimmer’s career when he chose to turn down an offer for his close friend Nolan’s film Tenet after hearing only one word from the Dune director that made him choose Dune over Tenet.
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The Reason Why Hans Zimmer Chose Dune Over Tenet
Back when Christopher Nolan‘s hit film Tenet was offered to Hans Zimmer in the late 2010s, another offer by director Denis Villeneuve was made to him to contribute his music to Dune–and Zimmer agreed on the latter.
What truly happened back then was that when Nolan offered Zimmer Tenet, the music producer was on his music tour and had come to the sudden epiphany that he was enjoying this more than he enjoyed making music for movies. That was why he turned down Christopher Nolan’s action/sci-fi.
Sharing the filmmaker’s reaction to him turning down his movie, Zimmer said during an episode of the in-house podcast of ReelBlend:
“Not great. … There’s another part to it as well, which people keep missing out on. I went out on tour, and I suddenly got really interested in this thing that I never thought I’d do. And here I was, sixty-odd years old going, ‘Whoa. This is fun. I like this!’ So Chris[topher Nolan] realized that, and he realized that that’s where my focus was at that moment.”
Thus, the director let him go. However, it wasn’t too late before the score composer went on to work on a new film, and this one wasn’t Nolan’s. Instead, this film was Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune. Revealing why he chose to take on Villeneuve’s project instead, Zimmer said:
“The thing that really pulled me back into the movies was Denis, just by saying that word ‘Dune.’ As I said, I was back to being 13 and I was back to before my career started … all of these ideas were rushing through my head.”
Although Hans Zimmer would have equally loved working on another project with Nolan, he wanted to stay invested in his own world of music at the time. And since Dune was his forever-favorite even as a child, it ended up alluring the music producer back to making music for films and paved the way for composer Ludwig Göransson to work on Tenet.
Hans Zimmer Never Watched Any Dune Adaptations Despite Being A Fan
Despite being a massive fan of Dune, Hans Zimmer revealed during the podcast that he has never watched any adaptation of the book for the big screen. He said:
“I’ve never seen the David Lynch version [of Dune], I’ve never seen the television series.”
While his not watching any big-screen adaptation of the masterpiece despite being such a huge fan is rather surprising, the reason behind Zimmer’s decision to do so is quite understandable as well.
“[This was] because I made this movie [on Dune] in my head when I was 13 or 14 or whatever, and I didn’t want it to be blunted out. I didn’t want to lose that movie I had made.”
Since not everyone gets the chance to work on something that they have loved ever since they were little, when Hans Zimmer got it, he didn’t take it for granted but instead ended up doing an exceptional job in further contributing to making the film one of biggest masterpieces of all time.
