Hollywood Online/MovieTunes News - December 1997

An article appeared at the Hollywood Online web site in the MovieTunes News section called "No Expectations Two Great For Patrick Doyle: Atlantic Announces Two Soundtracks for Upcoming 'Expectations'"

NEW YORK (December) -- Atlantic Records has announced the simultaneous January 6th release of the all-star soundtrack and score companion albums to the upcoming 20th Century Fox film, Great Expectations. The film, directed by Alfonso CuarÛn (The Little Princess), stars Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft, and Robert De Niro, and is set to premiere nationwide on January 30th.

The albums represent a unique approach to film music in their marriage of story with closely integrated score themes and specially recorded soundtrack material. The project found director CuarÛn working closely with score composer Patrick Doyle, a two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee.

"Alfonso always envisioned the score in a purely classical symphonic sense, in the way I normally write," notes Doyle, well known for his work with actor/director Kenneth Branagh. "But then he thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if, rather than just having pop songs, we tried to make the score different and as fresh and youthful as possible?' As well as using my skills, he thought 'Rather than just having a pop song on the score, why don't we work with contemporary artists and collaborate with them in a fresh new way?' And indeed that's what we've done."

Together, they enlisted a number of well-known artists like Tori Amos, Scott Weiland, Chris Cornell, and Pulp, as well as such talented up-and-comers as Duncan Sheik, Poe, Mono, Fisher, The Verve Pipe, Lauren Christy, and DavÌd Garza to contribute songs to the film's soundtrack. In addition, classic tracks from the Grateful Dead and Iggy Pop play into this retelling of Dickens' tale.

"Great Expectations: The Album" features the debut solo recording from Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland. The track, "Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down," recently debuted as the #1 most-added song at alternative radio. Another track from the collection, Duncan Sheik's "Wishful Thinking," is making inroads at Triple-A and Modern AC outlets across the country.

Patrick Doyle sees both "Great Expectations: The Album" and "Great Expectations: The Score" as pointing the way to a new ideal for future filmmakers interested in combining modern musical moods with traditional scores.

"The music is like another leading actor," Doyle notes. "The score has so much influence over mood changes and ambiance. It's crucial on a basic level. It's crucial that the atmosphere that's created for the whole picture has a uniformity, that it reflects the type of personalities that are up on the screen and how they interact and how the story around them interacts."

To that end, Tori Amos contributed vocal parts to the film's Doyle-composed "Finn" (heard on both "The Album" and "The Score") and "Paradiso Perduto." She also teamed with Doyle in writing the music to "The Album" track, "Siren," which also features lyrics and production work by Amos.

"Great Expectations: The Score" is further highlighted by a cast of performers from the worlds of opera, classical, world music, and jazz, including saxophonist James Carter, pianist Cyrus Chestnut, singer Cesaria Evora (whose "BÈsame Mucho" is also heard as a CD bonus track on "The Album"), guitarist John Williams, and famed soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. "The public not only gets something which is exciting musically, but something that really serves the picture in a very honest way," the composer says. "It's got the integrity that this film deserves. It's not just a commercial slapping on of music, it's really part of the whole organic process. Hopefully this will influence the way symphonic writers like myself work with contemporary artists, and vice versa."

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