What challenges have you encountered when writing Prince of Persia?
Above all, the main challenge was to compose for a film by Jerry Bruckheimer. This is something very special. When I started in Hollywood, I worked with Hans Zimmer on such films as The Rock with Trevor Rabin on Armageddon. A few years later, I made two films with Jerry, Veronica Guerin -who was not a movie typically "Bruckheimer" and Déjà Vu that, even if produced by Jerry, was more a film by Tony Scott. What makes Prince of Persia was my first real action movie with Jerry. I sincerely asked if it would suit me, but the nature of "geographic" the film I was trying too much to refuse!
When you started, you have taught music in North Africa in general and Egypt in particular. Has this experience helped you in one way or another for this movie?
Not really. Make Kingdom of Heaven me probably more because I helped quite a bit of research on this occasion on the instruments of the Middle East, I also took the time to think about whether I should write music Eastern treaty arrangements with a score or write an arrangement with Western Persian. I have experienced the same reflection on Prince of Persia .
It's all part of being very particular composer for Hollywood is always looking for new challenges, and I knew that Prince of Persia would be a score like no other. When I saw Jerry for the first Once on this film, he said: "We are trying to do something grand, an epic romance as Lawrence of Arabia." He had said everything. Obviously, my music does not sound like that of Lawrence of Arabia, but this reference opened all sorts of stylistic possibilities, like this classic.
With Jerry Bruckheimer, one expects indeed a great action music when your score is especially lyrical, even romantic.
That's why I mentioned earlier Hans. I am a realistic person. I am sure if Jerry had waved his wand, he could have Hans to make the music of Prince of Persia . It's like when I did Kingdom of Heaven: it was not that I force myself to make a Gladiator 2 ! I had to keep myself trying to do what I can do without worrying about standards and conventions established by my colleagues in other films of Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott. So I watched carefully Prince of Persia, and immediately I was struck by the relationship between Dastan and Tamina, and not by the action scenes. That's what inspired me musically.
How did you make of Kingdom of Heaven to Prince of Persia?
Both scores were finally not so much in common except for their location. Kingdom of Heaven was based on historical events, the Crusades, which means that there are many religious references. There is nothing in all this Prince of Persia, is pure fantasy. It is invented. And I think it means in music. For the main themes of Sands of Time, I wanted to try something, if you close eyes, do you imagine a movie once, I do not know, 60 or 70 years, even if it is a movie that should speak to younger generations. That's why there are action music. But this is not essential. Much of this score lies in its romantic dimension.
Like your music for Narnia you combine a highly original and effective use of ethnic instruments, a symphony orchestra and electric instruments like the violin Hugh Marsh.
This is a hybrid combining different partition elements, organic, electronic, orchestral and non-orchestral. This is really part of my personal language. It's part of my sound. This does not mean that my music is always inspired by characters and by the specific needs of the film.
Have you looked at the original video game?
Not at all! The director, Mike Newell said he had me somehow dug into the game and all these elements combined make for a movie. But these are indeed two very different things. I saw the game by far and I can assure you I'd much rather work with the film! The scenario Prince of Persia was my first contact with this universe, then a rough cut of the film ... three hours! It took time for the director and editors to "find" the movie, his identity, balance, and during that time, I wrote the music for a film much longer than you know!
This is often the case. It happened exactly the same way about the movie Ben Affleck which I did the music this summer, The Town . I wrote the music during the post-production, while mounting end was not yet completed. This means that the different songs that originally were integrated perfectly to the film needed to be totally re-examined to go with the final version. As a composer, you must be aware of and accept, and especially not to try to go against this process!
