Just after the release of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, composer Harry Gregson-Williams shares about his return to Narnia, his feelings about moving on from the franchise, what he’s doing with up-and-coming-composers like David Buckley and Stephen Barton at his Wavecrest Studios, and his upcoming projects which include X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
CC: Outside of the relocation, what would say your biggest challenge was musically on PRINCE CASPIAN?
HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS: My biggest challenge was to embrace Andrew (Adamson’s) notion that I should bring forward themes from the first movie. Of course, there are a number of new themes that I had to write, but the real conundrum for me was figuring out just how much of the thematic content I was going to bring with me from the last movie. It’s strange not starting from square-one. I actually worried about this quite a bit, so what I ended up doing was to push all of that to one side and write Prince Caspian’s theme and the cue for the first 8-minutes of the film. I knew this piece would have no reference to the previous movie, so this was good for me because it made me feel as though I was on a fresh musical journey.
CC: Would you say that, at least in some ways, it is more difficult in doing a sequel?
HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS: Yes. I would say that. I don’t know what David Arnold would say when one does Bond movie after Bond movie. Perhaps intellectually it’s not so difficult for him because what would a Bond movie be without ((hums James Bond theme)) – because you just need those John Barry moments. But somehow he is able to make the scores feel fresh. So for me, once I could see the arc of the story that I’d be able to follow, it all became much clearer.
CC: David Arnold is the composer taking the reigns, as it were, for the franchise…..How does it feel? Is it easy to cut the chord and say, “I’ve done my part and so whatever he does, great!”
HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS: I think if Andrew Adamson was directing the next movie and I hadn’t been asked to do it, then I don’t think I could help myself from feeling extremely disappointed.
