The Pretty Woman soundtrack changed my career | James Newton Howard on Composing

James Newton Howard reflects on how composing for Pretty Woman changed his career and making sure he takes time off in between writing music for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
More on James Newton Howard:
BAFTA-nominated screen composer James Newton Howard (Detroit, The Dark Knight, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) is one of the most versatile and respected composers working in film, with a career spanning over thirty years and over 120 films. Across his career, Howard has enjoyed longstanding collaborations with directors including M. Night Shyamalan, having scored eight of his films including The Sixth Sense and I Am Legend. Further credits include Pretty Woman, Nightcrawler, Batman Begins, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Dark Knight, for which he received a BAFTA nom with composer Hans Zimmer. His score for Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events saw him nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Composition for a series, his fifth nom to date.
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[@DenisIgua]

James is a true example of humility in greatness.

[@jcp1984again]

Howard is one of my all-time favorite composers. His music is soulful and powerful. What a great musical storyteller!

[@Frankie2012channel]

James Newton Howards is one of the greatest, most talented composers in the industry! He is a national treasure!

[@justrandomsillystuff7481]

A lot of times, I wouldn't be aware in advance of who composed the score for movies I see. But as I watch the films, I really get moved by the score and look up who did the score. And it's always James Newton Howard.

[@foxxcop543]

The man never misses!

[@LandBeforeTime75]

I love the musical scores by James Newton Howard especially with The Soundtrack from Dinosaur 2000. The Soundtrack from Dinosaur 2000 looks peaceful, revolutionary and tremendous good.

[@armytbchaine6515]

This movie forged my childhood and I will never thanks James Newton Howard enough for the masterpiece he did on this one.

[@RS-jb1lf]

James has enriched the lives of millions with his work. So grateful for it. The score for Fugitive, particularly Stairway Chase is one of my favourites. Pretty Woman and the theme for ER, collab with Zimmer on the Dark Knight it just goes and on. Thank you, James you are too humble.

[@imgone8633]

JAMES SAYS A LOT IN SUCH A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME!

[@tiffsaver]

I think that his soundtrack really pulled PW together. And to think that he wrote it all in *15-minutes* has to be some kind of modern day miracle. More amazing still is that he never even saw the film, composing the music, first. I think a perfect movie is when the story, the cast, the direction, and the music all come together into one seamless whole, as in "Pretty Woman." When I watched Julia Roberts at the age of 21 in her first major role, I thought she as absolutely luminous, a quality that virtually guaranteed her place in Hollywood history.

[@kobigerassi5501]

PRETTY WOMAN -sweet and romantic, simple and delicate like a chocolate soufflé... DYING YOUNG -heart breaking melodies with that chilling oboe and goosebumps moments of facing mortality and sickness of a loved one... MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING - whimsical , playful and fun, yet heartbreaking at times... These are three wonderful films starring the Charming Julia Roberts, and the score was composed by this fabulous composer of course... I was already hooked on his music when he scored the beautifuly detailed and nuanced score of SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS, a wonderfuly shot film of live and tragedy, nature and man... I think it's he's greatest overlooked Masterpiece!! A truly enchanting experience, no matter how many times I listen to it, it never stops moving me deeply and awaken my senses, like a spell, which is what great music is truly capable of doing. And then, of course, the collaboration with Hans Zimmer on the first two DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY films, Dark, Tense abd Action packed but still with a soulful dramatic emphasis... and the wonderful MALEFICENT soundtrack! Majestic, Magical and Touching... JAMES NEWTON HOWARD DESERVES MUCH MORE RECOGNITION AND APPRECIATION. ❤❤❤

[@baoxuanchen2421]

This is the man who I’ve been admired for a long period of time. Not only because he is an excellent film composer. It more of become he is one of most remarkable person I’ve ever known!!

[@richardclifton1015]

This man can whight exceptional music

[@JaredSmithTheIntern]

It frustrates me that I've heard endlessly about Zimmer and not a word about Howard. I just watched Red Sparrow, and wanted to see who orchestrated it, so I googled his name. This was really helpful advice. It's also somewhat humanizing to see big shots like this saying it all starts with a computer, some samples, and a good idea. Thanks!

[@steveashawasegai1041]

Jared Smith frustrates me as well. Zimmer has gotten overrated. Little known fact is he barely "writes" his own scores. His minions at Remote Control ghost write most of them. I miss composers like Jerry Goldsmith, Horner and even Howard and Shore. Silvestri is pretty great too. As with Elfman.

[@steveashawasegai1041]

Jared Smith one thing I disagree with in this interview is writing ideas based on a script. I personally need to see the the emotion of a scene to get my ideas. Scripts don't really do it for me. I need to see the imprint of the actors and director.

[@JaredSmithTheIntern]

Steve Ashawasegai For sure, I totally agree. I posted a video a couple of days ago (a really stupid parody movie trailer), and I did both the filming and the score for the video. I started dabbling with the score before we started filming, just going off of the script and the ideas we had, but after we had all of our shots, I knew that the score needed to be completely different. Had I stuck with the original direction of the score, it would have sounded like "Angels in the Outfield."

[@tiffsaver]

The only really great thing Zimmer did was "Gladiator."

[@Skitdora2010]

Zimmer did lots of modern hit movies and super hero movies so he will be more commonly listened to. Same as John Williams with Star Wars. The bigger the movie the more exposed the composers are. Some of the older hits are still listened to but they are more like a dream, like Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence by Sakamoto. People enjoy them in a different way because they withstood the test of time and independently bring up private memories as opposed to what scene they come on in the movie.

[@aitornavarro6597]

I can't believe this man wrote all the music for King Kong in like 2 or 3 weeks or something like that. That's fucking insanely genius!!! Hats off maestro!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@october65-h6e]

One of my music gods!!!

[@jcp1984again]

Mine too.

[@Steve_Gordo]

"He sleeps" sounds like he used the piano solo from the 70's song by Bruce Springsteen's "Racing in the streets".

[@shortfilms5667]

love his WATERWORLD soundtrack

[@mguevarra61]

Can we get a release of the film scores for Pretty Woman and French Kiss?

[@pittsburghdirtydozen4479]

Did he do Cast-Away with Tom Hanks?

[@christophersouza3159]

No. That was Alan Silvestri.

[@tangotanjomusic]

Who is the guy in the corner?

[@2ndRodeo_Keziah]

OMG that music at the end! 😝 That ain’t JNH!

[@aitornavarro6597]

I'd wish he'd written the score for the new Bond movie "No Time To Die" rather than self-plagiarising and boring 'ole Hans Zimmer

[@Jeffery99]

Lol chill

[@aitornavarro6597]

I've been saying ever since Skyfall onwards but no!!!! Boring ole- Zimmer got the privilege smh