I wish I could say this was a big surprise. Maybe, being an expected piece of news, it’s an easier pill to swallow. The website for legendary composer Ennio Morricone says that he won’t be scoring Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds after all. Instead, he’s scoring Giuseppe Tornatore’s Baaria instead. No shock there, as Morricone has scored all of Tornatore’s films but his first. (Including Cinema Paradiso, which is likely an influence on QT’s new film.)
Still, this blows. With Morricone on board, Basterds would have been the first Tarantino film with a significant original score. (No one seems to count The RZA’s efforts on Kill Bill.) It was so easy to daydream about how fantastic new Tarantino war images would have played alongside new Morricone music.
But in reality, the schedule was super-tight, and the maestro doesn’t like to be rushed. I don’t like him to be rushed, either, because when Morricone doesn’t seem to be digging his project, the resulting music blows. Sure, Morricone has written a dozen of the most significant film scores of all time, but he’s also churned out his share of crap. I’d hate for Inglorious Basterds to have been in the ‘crap’ column.
(And please, this isn’t me turning against Morricone for dropping out. You’ve got to acknowledge all the stuff in between his masterworks, and Morricone’s own statements about his preferred working methods.)
Thanks to the killer folks at The Playlist for the heads up on this crap news.