Howard is on 'Charlie'
James Newton Howard is a busy man this year. In addition to composing the music for "The Great Debaters," "I Am Legend," "The Lookout" and "Michael Clayton," I'm just now realizing he was tapped by Mike Nichols to replace the original composer on "Charlie Wilson's War" (which, FYI, explains the film's tardiness in a certain regard -- the sound mix is said to still be in the process of completion). Five films, four of them, perhaps, aiming for major awards contention.
Hope you catch up on some sleep over the holidays, Mr. Howard. Sheesh...
Red Carpet District is Variety contributor Kristopher Tapley's attempt at making sense of the ever-expanding glut of film awards coverage. He's been on the beat for six years. Email 
Howard is a great composer. He doesn't do a lot of showboating, but creates scores that are appropriate and unique to the film he's working on. The Lookout is a good example of this, appropriate but not obtrusive. I'm not at all interested in CWW - its one of those films that has "Oscar tunnel-vision" written all over it. With all respect to Howard, adding him at the last minute just compounds the blatant Oscar-baiting aura surrounding that film.
Posted by: WJ | 11/18/2007 11:15:10 AM
This movie sounds fishy to me. I saw Michael Clayton tonight (nice score by JNH by the way) and the trailer played to a pretty full audience with not a lick of a reaction. It looks... boring and a little hokey. If the sound mix can fix that, awesome.
Posted by: Leone | 11/17/2007 10:45:08 PM