How come Danny Elfman didn't do the music for Batman Begins?

Question

I think Batman Begins is the best Batman movie, they followed the storyling of the comic, cause the Joker didn't kill Bruce Waynes parents, & they show how he trained to become Batman. But how come Christopher Nolan didn't use the Batman music from the 1989 movie & other previous Batman films. Eventhough Batman Begins is restarting the franchise, which is a good thing, they still should have used to the music from the previous films, c'mon, Superman Returns restarted the Superman franchise & they still used the John Williams music, but why not for Batman?, did Christoper Nolan not hire him or did Danny Elfman not want to cooperate?, well I hope the music for The Dark Knight is good.

Answer 1

Because it isn't a live-action cartoon, that's why. Or maybe because there was no place for Danny Elfman to sing someone else's song for them. Don't get me wrong, I love some of the stuff he's done, but it's really on a different planet from Batman Begins, which I just loved.

Answer 2

Elfman by far. I could see someone buying the song simply to listen to, not just because it's Batman. Not to mention, it's now a cladssic--in fact, the first "Begins" teaser started with the Warner symbol onscreen, and the Elfman theme playing. It's also ingrained in people's minds--which is why all (good) Batman themes, up until "Begins", were modeled after it--Elfman was recruited to do the music for Spider Man (if you don't believe me, check the credits), and did the theme for the Flash series was an obvious rip-off of the Elman theme (the series was released in 1990, and only lasted one season). It even made it into an episode of Smallville (Vengeance, the one with the Angel of Vengeance). Batman Begins' theme will never have the recognizability or the popularity/"classic-ness" of the Burton theme. Not to mention the obvious similarities between the movie theme and the B: TAS theme, which is just as recognizable.

Answer 3

This is the reason behind your question...

There is no carryover of musical ideas from prior films. Regarding the musical history of the franchise, Zimmer states something that would seem to make sense when taken for face value: "Why would I want to do a sequel to something? That's a boring thing to do. We went for dark and brooding. I think probably one of the things is that we're a lot darker than any of the stuff that's gone before. I was working on a Chris Nolan movie and ultimately you serve the film in front of you. I don't think you need to be relevant to the history that it comes from, in a way. That's what the guys pay me for: invent!" He continues by saying: "Nobody ever mentions the Elliot Goldenthal scores. And of course I'm not mentioning any of that either, because quite honestly I didn't go and look at the old Batman movies again..." The above statements are fascinating, because Zimmer exposes a critical component in his methodology that plagues his score for Batman Begins and others of recent times: laziness. Whether he likes it or not (and the same can be applied to Nolan), Batman Begins finishes in almost identical fashion to Burton's two films, with surprisingly similar treatments of scene, character, and action. we even get to see the "rising building" shot where Batman is silhouetted atop a tall building. The theme that Zimmer conjures shares the same basic dual-personality super-hero idea of alternating between major and minor keys. And whether Zimmer realizes it or not, he didn't invent the concept of brooding in the Batman franchise; Elfman clearly did. The problem with Zimmer's lack of attentiveness to the franchise is the simple fact that he attempted to reinvent the wheel for Batman's music. He chose not to pay attention to the music that fans of the series already have ingrained in their memories --another "whether you like it or not"-- and tried to take the music in a new direction. In reality, all he did was create an inferior version of what Elfman and Goldenthal had already done. Some people have said that Batman Begins didn't need the gothically heroic approach of scoring. Zimmer claims that wasn't his goal, either. But the film demanded it by the end, and Zimmer's inability to write to those needs (and refusal to study the success of those who came before) ultimately makes Batman Begins a disappointing score.

Answer 4

I think Nolan wanted to go in a different direction musically. And Elfman seems to have a pretty good relationship with Tim Burton; he scored several of his films.

Answer 5

i really don't know