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3/29/02 - Twentieth Century Fox has threatened Filmtracks with
legal action over this site's coverage of the popular musical Moulin
Rouge. Through their law partners, Keats, McFarland & Wilson, LLP,
Twentieth Century Fox stated in a surprise cease and
desist letter that Filmtracks must immediately remove select
elements of the coverage pertaining to the promotional album. No such
demand has ever been made of Filmtracks before, and the letter arrived
without any attempt by Fox to resolve the "offense" through non-legal
threats. Filmtracks has removed the minimum content required to appease
the legal threat presented by Fox on the same day the demand was
delivered. Filmtracks continues to support the film, its music, and
especially Craig Armstrong, whose coordination and arrangement of music
for the project is much admired. In response to the (in our
opinion) unprofessional and disrespectful manner in which Fox resorted to
immediate legal threats, a copy of
their original letter, Filmtracks' official response, and the webmaster's
"unofficial" response on the subject have been published in the
place of the content removed. Since its launch in 1996, Filmtracks has
enjoyed superb relations with studios, record labels, and artists
alike. Twentieth Century Fox is the first company to use legal threats as
a means of first communication with the site.
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3/24/02 - This year's Academy Award winner for Best Original
Score is Howard Shore for The Lord of
the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Replacing Bill Conti as the
pit conductor at the new Kodak theatre in Hollywood for this year's
ceremony is the maestro himself, John Williams. After conducting an
arrangement he made of the most memorable movie themes of all time (which
included no less than three of his own themes), Williams cordially
applauded Howard Shore's win. By winning the Academy Award for Best
Original Song ("If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters,
Inc.), Randy Newman avoids becoming the single "losingest" nominee
in the history of the Oscars (in any category). Newman had been nominated
15 times without a win. Feel free to voice your opinion about this year's
results at the Filmtracks
ScoreBoard.
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3/23/02 - Kate & Leopold: (Rolfe Kent) "Becoming a staple of
the light comedy scoring genre, Rolfe Kent is quickly asserting his
position as a reliable and frequent composer for films that lie on the
edge of the mainstream, including several entries during this past year
alone. The romantic, 2001 holiday season film Kate & Leopold ranked
among the most popular that Kent has been associated with thus
far. Despite the hopes of Miramax, the star power and flighty love story
didn't sustain the film to the same level as Meg Ryan's other similarly
targeted films. But the project still managed a strong enough box office
to gain the Sting song for the film, "Until...," the recognition necessary
for the awards season. The moderate success of the film, as well as
Sting's contribution, also caused a much deserved album release for the
score by Rolfe Kent. With his film scores rarely experiencing a lengthy
release, Milan Record's release of this Kent score is much
welcomed...." **** Read the entire
review.
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3/4/02 - The Filmtracks March, 2002, Theme of the Month is
now
available. Just like every March since 1997, Filmtracks examines the
nominees of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, makes a few
predictions, and adds some perspective to the awards process. Finally, the
fans' choices are added to Filmtracks' own awards to round out a complete
overview of the film music of 2001. All five of the AMPAS score nominees
belong to films that have fantasy elements to them, and more
interestingly, all five are major American films. The year of 2001 marked
the grand return of the fantasy film and fantasy score, and when it came
down to awards time, the mainstream fantasy genre took flight. You can
discuss the Academy or Filmtracks' nominations and winners at The
Filmtracks ScoreBoard.
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