According to Variety.com, the executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ music department has disqualified The Dark Knight’s score from being nominated for an Academy Award. The reason behind the dismissal is because the score’s cue sheet, the official document from the studio that lists the copyright owners and the duration of each piece of music, has five different names, which is not allowed by the Academy.
This is not the first time a score has been disqualified for having multiple names on the sheet. In 2005, The Dark Knight’s prequel, Batman Begins, was disqualified for the same reason.
The Warner Bros. film’s music cue sheet credits Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Alex Gibson, Mel Wesson and Lorne Balfe for their work on the amazing score.
Zimmer said, in an interview with Variety prior to this week’s Acad action, that listing multiple names on the cue sheet was a way of financially rewarding parts of the music team who helped make the overall work successful. (Performing-rights societies like ASCAP and BMI use the cue sheet to distribute royalties to composers.) - Variety.com
With it becoming a trend in Hollywood, some members of the Academy are siding with Zimmer and Howard saying that the innovative score should still be considered for an award even though there are multiple names on the sheet. If the committee doesn’t change their mind soon, hopefully they will change the rules for the next awards ceremony in 2010.
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Jorn
Funny, I was just writing an article based on the Variety story when this popped up in my RSS feed. Will this be this years “scandal”? I remember “There Will Be Blood” by Jonny Greenwood, there was a lot of controversy about that.
Nov 13th, 2008
Pet Pics
Just another reason for the elitist academy to leave a movie (or any part of a movie) off of the Oscar nominee list.
Nov 15th, 2008
Reply to “THE DARK KNIGHT Score Disqualified From The Oscars”