James Horner Secretly Composed 'The Magnificent Seven' Reboot Score Before His Death
Last month brought the tragic news that Oscar-winning composer James Horner had in a plane crash at the age of 61. He was famed for composing the music for such films as Titanic, Braveheart, A Beautiful Mind, Aliens, and Field of Dreams.
This week, Southpaw director Antoine Fuqua has been making the publicity rounds for his upcoming film which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a boxer seeking redemption in his life and inside the ring. The director spoke with NPR where the discussion turned to his next movie, the remake of classic western, The Magnificent Seven. Fuqua revealed in the interview that the late composer had in fact scored the movie before his passing.
First, Fuqua spoke highly of Horner's talents and presence as a person. "James was an incredible human being," Fuqua said. "He was a filmmaker through and through. He was one of the most gentle people I’ve ever met. Even the way he spoke was very soft and thoughtful. He was magical. He had this childlike wonderment in his eyes, but he was an amazing artist, an amazing poet. I loved him and we became friends."
fuqua then revealed that Horner spoke to him regarding his admiration for Southpaw and how he came to score the movie.
"He called me on a Saturday after he watched Southpaw, and I said ‘I don’t have any money,' because it wasn’t a big budget movie. And he said to me. ‘I love the movie. I love the father-daughter relationship. Don’t worry about the money, I’m just going to do it.’ And he did it for nothing. He paid his crew out of his own pocket."
Fuqua then talked about the process in how Horner composed the score for the upcoming Magnificent Seven movie.
"I just found out a few days ago – his team flew out here, to Baton Rouge, and they brought me all the music for The Magnificent Seven. He already wrote it for me based on the script. He did it all off the script because he wanted to surprise me. I thought it was a gift or something. And they all came out here and said, ‘Antoine, James wrote the music for Magnificent Seven already and it’s just glorious.’ So that’s my memory of James."
The Magnificent Seven opens on January 13th, 2017.
