German-born American film score composer and music producer Hans Zimmer has composed music for over hundred fifty movies. Zimmer’s list of movie scores includes 1994’s The Lion King, and 2021’s Dune: Part One for which he had won Academy Awards for Best Original Score. He has also worked on music scores for movies including Gladiator, The Last Samurai, Inception, Dunkirk, and more.
With a career spanning over 40 years, there is no doubt that Hans Zimmer is regarded as one of the finest film music composers in the industry. Zimmer’s frequent collaboration with filmmakers including Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Ridley Scott, and more has been appreciated over the years. The film score composer recently addressed his retirement plans.
Hans Zimmer has no plans to retire from making music for movies
In a recent interview with IndieWire, the brilliant and celebrated film score composer Hans Zimmer was asked about his retirement plans. His most recent work in Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Two was not only heard but also highly appreciated by the audience. The film music composer said,
“Are you kidding me? I’ve played all my life. Why would I stop playing? Why would I stop living a playful life? Why would I stop trying to, you know invent things? Why would I? I mean, there are good reasons because as I sit down and there is a blank page and I’m supposed to write something, I’m like ‘Oh my god, I have no idea how to do this.’”
The composer continued that after two weeks he wants to call the director and give him the number of the composers who can write the music score for them, but added that somehow the dichotomy of wanting to do something new and something original is real. He however admits;
“Sometimes in the back of my mind, it lingers, a piece of music I have not written that I think is really good, but I don’t know how to get to it. So I just have to go scramble until I get this piece, and it just hasn’t happened yet.”
He notes that everything is an experiment adding that everything is just trying to get a little bit closer to emotional truth.
Hans Zimmer talks about how Dune: Part One laid the foundation for Dune: Part Two
In an interview with Variety, the film music composer was asked about his work in Dune: Part Two starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. To which he said,
“The first movie is a preamble. The first movie came out and I just carried on writing and I got a phone call from Denis. He said, ‘The movie has been out for six months, you can stop’. And I told him, ‘No, no, no, you don’t understand, I’m writing because I know that we will be greenlit for Part Two. And secondly, I think it’d be good for me to carry on writing and maybe inspire you with something.”
Zimmer shared that the main theme for Dune: Part Two was written when he was on a massive European tour and he opened the set with that tune and of course, the audience didn’t know what it was. He joked that it was like Christopher Nolan’s movie where he was playing with time. He continued,
“When I went to see science fiction movies, I could never understand why I’d hear the sound of a European orchestra and strings. I thought we were going o go to galaxies that we had never known before. So, I thought it was very important to build instruments and make a good sonic world and build a musical world that hadn’t been there before.”
He also mentioned that for new characters like Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen played by Austin Butler, who is on the dark side, he tried to give the character an industrial brooding sound. He added that it felt important to him to not overdo things noting that his idea was to be there and support the acting, cinematography, editing, and storytelling with his music. He lastly added that he likes doing evil stuff as it comes easily to him.
Hans Zimmer revealed that he is working on the music score for Dune Messiah as he knows that they are not done.
Dune: Part Two is playing in cinemas.
