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Filmnotgraphy
Titles
of films John Barry was alleged to be scoring in the past, but that
did not happen or scores were replaced. Several titles may have
been be mere speculation at the time and hold no truth whatsoever.
1965
Promis Her Anything |
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Composer Lyn Murray said the "powers" didn't like Barry's score, and ask
him to replace it; he added he did not hear Barry's score. Leslie
Bricusse was to have written the title song with Barry and may well have
done. |
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| Lyn Murray |
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1965
What's New Pussycat |
1968
Sinful Davy |
| considered but unavailable |
A 19th century contemporary score which Barry says he wrote
and recorded for John Huston but the producers rejected
the score and subsequently wouldn't return it to Barry.
Lukas Kendall of 'Film
Score Monthly' has checked the studio vaults for 'Sinful
Davey' and sadly, but not surprisingly, it's not there.
It must be 99.999% certain that the studio executives who
hated the score destroyed the masters thus depriving us
of what may well have been a classic Barry score.
The themes from Sinful Davey may have been recycled into
other scores but we'll never know for certain unless Barry
can remember and is willing to discuss it.
John Middleton wrote in our discussion forum: Score recorded
at CTS. Masters held across the road in a basement which
was flooded during a cloudburst. No-one realised about the
flood for some time. |
| Burt Bacharach |
Ken Thorne |
|
1969
Anne of The Thousand Days |
1969
Battle Of Britain |
| |
Apparently, John Barry turned down the assignment before Goodwin
was asked.
When they asked Goodwin the first time, he declined. After
they found no other (Barry and apparently others) willing to replace
Walton, they asked Goodwin the second time. Goodwin doubled
his fee, and to his surprise Saltzman said OK. |
| Georges Delerue |
Ron Goodwin, William Walton |
|
1970
Love Story |
1971
Get Carter |
| Anthony Harvey was to direct, but Barry left when
Arthur Hiller signed on. |
considered but unavailable |
| Francis Lai |
Roy Budd |
1973
Live and Let Die |
1973
Don't Look Now |
| unavailable: fell out with Harry Saltzman, and working
on Billy |
"Frances" DVD has interesting tidbits apparently reveals
by interviews and commentary that Barry was offered this Nic Roeg's
film. Apparently, it isn't revealed why Barry didn't do them. |
| George Martin / titlesong: Paul McCartney
and Wings |
Pino Donaggio |
1976
The Man Who Fell To Earth |
1977
The Spy Who Loved Me |
| "Frances" DVD has interesting tidbits
apparently reveals by interviews and commentary that Barry was offered
this Nic Roeg's film. Apparently, it isn't revealed why Barry didn't
do them. |
unavailable due to tax-related problems |
| John Phillips, Stomu Yamashta |
Marvin Hamlisch |
1977
Gulliver's Travels (1972) |
1977
First Love |
| Peter Hunt mentioned in an interview that Barry
and Black had written a substantial amount but when the film went
into financial hiatus, and was effectively locked up, the whole
project got shelved. When the finance came back, Hunt contacted
Barry and Black, but Barry had withdrawn his music by then. |
Began as a song score, wasn't working. Barry hired to write a
complete score, parts of which were rejected as "too mature,"
resulting in a hybrid song score/ Barry score. At this point,
Barry asked his name be removed, but his name was seen as composer
on the theatrical posters and (b) there were unmistakable Barryisms
in the snippets of score that (still) remain. The director just
couldn't make up her mind.
In January 2013, a limited edition of John Barry's score was released on CD by Lalalaland Records.
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1981
For Your Eyes Only |
1981
Clash of the Titans |
| unavailable due to tax-related problems |
According to writer Martyn Crosthwaite, who had conducted in-depth interviews with Barry, Barry had a disagreement with the producers over his overture and left the project having written nothing more. However, Ray Harryhausen claimed Barry's complete score was rejected as unsuitable.
In 2001 Barry told Ford Thaxton: "I can't remember for sure. I don't think I got too involved. I think I may have done some demos on that and they didn't like the way I was going with it and that was probably it." |
| Bill Conti |
Laurence Rosenthal |
1983
The Right Stuff |
1985
Once Bitten |
In an interview in the late eighties, Barry said that director Phil Kaufman was a frustrated musician who was unable to get his take on the music across. At one point, to describe the music he wanted, Kaufman said: "you're walking in the desert and you see a cactus, and you put your foot on it, but it just starts growing up through your foot."
Barry told Ford Thaxton "I wrote several things and Phil Kaufman was very up on all the rest of it and everything. It was going very well, and then there were certain problems on the movie down the line, and he needed an excuse for delaying the production. The details are a little foggy now, but I've always remembered my association with Kaufman was also one of the most dishonest pieces of behavior I've ever encountered in the movie industry. I'll leave it at that." |
Barry wrote two demo themes, didn't get the job. Recycled them into Best Man In The World for Golden Child |
| Bill Conti (Academy Award) |
John Du Prez |
1988
Farm of the Year |
1989
Licence To Kill |
| Because of his ilness - ruptured oesophagus, JB
had to leave the music for Farm of the Year, retitled 'Miles from
Home' |
The producers wanted him to score this movie but because he was still recovering from serious illness it was considered unsafe for him to fly to London to work on the score. They left it as late as possible before hiring Michael Kamen. |
| Robert Folk |
Michael Kamen |
1990
Stella |
1990
The Russia House |
| In an interview Barry says he had finished composing the score and the "powers that be" decided the film should be a comedy instead of drama and asked him to redo the main theme. Barry refused, and walked off the picture. |
can anyone confirm? |
| John Morris |
Jerry Goldsmith |
1991
The Prince of Tides |
1992
CrissCross |
| fell out with director and left |
Saw film and decided he wasn't interested. As told to Geoff by
him. |
| James Newton Howard |
Trevor Jones |
1992
The Bodyguard |
1992
Year of the Comet |
| new director, Barry left |
Main theme is used in the film's trailer towards the end. |
| Alan Silvestri and pop songs |
Hummie Mann |
1992
Of Mice and Men |
1992
1492 |
| |
JB told Geoff that the director once offered to show him the
film but that was as far as it went. He never heard from him again
on the subject. |
| Mark Isham |
Vangelis |
1993
Sleepless in Seattle |
1994
It Could Happen To You |
| 'I was offered Sleepless in Seattle. They sent me the script. They asked me to do it, and I said I would be very interested. But then I heard there was a so-called "musical supervisor," and whenever I hear that I want to run. So then the musical supervisor came into the picture. And then I spoke to a guy who runs Epic Music in Los Angeles. And he said he wanted these songs, and I said "can I have a list? Fax me a list." And there were about 20 songs, and I said, "Well, where am I?" Right then I didn't want to do this movie.' |
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| Marc Shaiman |
Carter Burwell |
1995
The Grass Harp |
1995
Goldeneye |
| |
Was asked to score but was too busy on other projects and also wanted to spend time with his very young son. |
| Patrick Williams |
Eric Serra |
1996
The Juror |
1996
The English Patient |
| "I met with the director, Brian Gibson, and told him how I work. I would give him themes, and then I go off and work, and then go to Los Angeles, he's finished shooting, we spot the movie. I did a few things which he really liked a lot, and which Columbia liked. Then he said, "Well, what about the rest of the music?" and I said, "What about the rest of the music?" He said, "I want to hear it." I said, "This is not an audition, Brian. This is your second movie. If there's anything at the end of the day that you don't like, then we have a little session." |
was approached but refused |
| James Newton Howard |
Gabriel Yared |
1997
Tomorrow Never Dies |
1998
Bliss |
| Wanted proper fee, full creative control (the song), both of which he was refused. |
Barry recorded some violin pieces that were played on set while filming, but a scheduling problem led to him being unable to do the score in the end. |
| David Arnold |
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek |
1998
Seven Years in Tibet |
1998
Ever After |
| had conversations with director but never signed |
wrote a theme as a demo, which was rejected |
| John Williams |
George Fenton |
1998
The Horse Whisperer |
1999
The End Of The Affair |
| Wrote and recorded several demo themes but disagreements with director Robert Redford led to him leaving the project. He did not compose and record a complete score, as has been suggested. |
Wrote demo theme, presumably rejected. It's now
a track on Eternal Echoes. |
| Thomas Newman |
Michael Nyman |
1999
Goodbye Lover |
1999
Tom's Midnight Garden |
| Wrote and recorded full score. However, the film's writer, Ron Peer, who was delighted with it, told Geoff that so many changes had been made to the film in the editing phase that he feared Barry's score would not survive. Alas this turned out to be the case. |
Director Willard Carroll wanted Barry (him being
a big fan), made one phone call just to check out availability but
there was never any discussion beyond that. |
| John Ottman |
Debbie Wiseman |
2000
Thomas and the Magic Railroad |
2004
The Incredibles |
| Barry was initially very enthusiastic about this (his son was a big fan of the stories) and wrote several songs with Don Black. However, he eventually decided the film was not going the way he had envisaged and left. |
Worked on this for some time but apparently the studio did not agree with his take. There seems to have been a misunderstanding as director Brad Bird hired him on the basis that he would write a score which was a pastiche of his James Bond scores. Barry had no intention of scoring it that way and even his trailer music was replaced by a real Bond theme - OHMSS! They could not agree and Barry left. |
| Hummie Mann |
Michael Giacchino |
Projects which never saw the day of light.
| The Jam |
Travels with Charlie |
| Barry bought the rights and planned to act as
composer/producer |
Barry bought the rights and planned to act as composer/producer
with segments to be directed by people like Kevin C. I seem
to recall that Jim Wilson might have been a co-producer? Not
sure! Barry publicised this quite a lot in the sweep of post-Dances
popularity but (obviously) it never arrived. |
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Thanks
to: Stephen Woolston, Pete Greenhill, James Southall, David N.
Butterworth, Michael Storck, Matt Manning, Ron van Overveldt,
Guenther Koegebehn, Mike Copping, John Middleton.
Other sources: "John Barry - A Life In Music", "Score"
(Dutch film music magazine, which also mentioned: Property of
a Lady (a Bond title rumour), Lonesome Dove, and called The Horse
Whisperer the new Bond ! in 1996. |
