List of film director and composer collaborations

The following film score composers and film directors typically work together on projects. The list is alphabetical by director's last name.

J. J. Abrams and Michael Giacchino

Giacchino has scored J. J Abrams' television projects "Alias" (2001-2006) and "Lost" (2004 -), and scored his film "" (2006) and is set to score Abrams' "Star Trek XI" (2009), he also composed the "ROAR!" overture heard at the end credits sequence from the Abrams-produced film "Cloverfield".

Robert Aldrich and Frank De Vol

De Vol scored Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955), "The Big Knife" (1955), "Attack" (1956), "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962), "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964), "The Flight of the Phoenix" (1965), "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), "The Legend of Lylah Clare" (1968), "Ulzana's Raid" (1972), "Emperor of the North Pole" (1973), "The Longest Yard" (1974), "Hustle" (1975), "The Choirboys" (1977), "The Frisco Kid" (1979) and "All the Marbles" (1981).

Jon Amiel and Christopher Young

"Copycat" (1995), "The Man Who Knew Too Little" (1997), "Entrapment" (1999) and "The Core" (2003).

Paul Thomas Anderson and Jon Brion

"Hard Eight" (also known as "Sydney") (1996), "Magnolia" (1999), and "Punch-Drunk Love" (2002). Jon had a cameo appearance in "Boogie Nights".

Wes Anderson and Mark Mothersbaugh

Mark Mothersbaugh has scored all but one of Wes Anderson's films. These include "Bottle Rocket" (1996), "Rushmore" (1999), "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001), and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), but not "The Darjeeling Limited".

Darren Aronofsky and Clint Mansell

"Pi" (1998), "Requiem for a Dream" (2000) and "The Fountain" (2006).

John Badham and Hans Zimmer

"Bird on a Wire" (1990), "Point of No Return" (1993) and "Drop Zone" (1994).

Bernardo Bertolucci and Ryuichi Sakamoto

"The Last Emperor" (1987), "The Sheltering Sky" (1990) and "Little Buddha" (1993).

Luc Besson and Éric Serra

Éric Serra has scored every film directed by Luc Besson except "Angel-A". These include "Le Dernier Combat", "Subway", "Le Grand Bleu", "Nikita", "Atlantis", "Léon", "The Fifth Element", "" and "Arthur and the Minimoys".

Tim Burton and Danny Elfman

The two began their collaboration in the mid-1980s with "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure". Since then, two have combined to direct and score (respectively) a dozen movies, including the "The Jar", an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Batman" and "Batman Returns" (1989/1992), "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993), "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005), "Planet of the Apes" (2001), "Beetlejuice" (1988),"Corpse Bride" (2005), "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), and "Mars Attacks!" (1996). The Burton-directed features which Elfman has not scored are "Ed Wood" (1994), which was done by Howard Shore; and "Sweeney Todd," which used pre-existing songs by Stephen Sondheim.

Kenneth Branagh and Patrick Doyle

Collaborated on all of Branagh's film adaptations of Shakespeare, as well as several other films: "Henry V" (1989), "Dead Again" (1991), "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993), "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (1994), "Hamlet" (1996), "Love's Labour's Lost" (2000), "As You Like It" (2006).

= Mel Brooks and John Morris =

"The Producers" (1968), "The Twelve Chairs" (1970), "Young Frankenstein" (1974), "Blazing Saddles" (1974), "Silent Movie" (1976), "High Anxiety" (1978), "History of the World, Part I" (1981), "Spaceballs" (1987) and "Life Stinks" (1991).

James Cameron and Brad Fiedel

"The Terminator" (1984), "" (1992), and "True Lies", (1994).

Coen Brothers and Carter Burwell

Burwell has scored the Coens' "Blood Simple" (1984), "Raising Arizona" (1987), "Miller's Crossing" (1990), "Barton Fink" (1991), "The Hudsucker Proxy" (1994), "Fargo" (1996), "The Big Lebowski" (1998), "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2001) "Intolerable Cruelty" (2003) and "The Ladykillers" (2004), and is credited for "additional music" on "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000).

Rob Cohen and Randy Edelman

' (1993), "Dragonheart" (1996), "Daylight" (1996), "The Skulls" (2000), "XXX" (2002) and '

= Alex Cox and Pray for Rain =

Pray for Rain scored Cox's "Straight to Hell" (1987), "Death and the Compass" (1996) and "Three Businessmen" (1998), and were among the contributors to the score of "Sid and Nancy" (1986). Their original score for Cox's "The Winner" (1991) was replaced when the film was edited by its producers into a version Cox disowned.

Michael Crichton and Jerry Goldsmith

"Coma" (1978), "The First Great Train Robbery" (1979), "Runaway" (1984), and "The 13th Warrior" (1999), which was co-produced by Michael Crichton and partly directed by him (uncredited). Jerry Goldsmith also scored "Congo" and "Timeline", which were based on novels by Michael Crichton. Goldsmith's score for "Timeline" was ultimately replaced with one composed by Brian Tyler, when the movie was heavily re-edited several times and Goldsmith finally did not feel like investing any more time in the project.

David Cronenberg and Howard Shore

All of Cronenberg's films since "The Brood" in 1979 have been scored by Shore, except for "The Dead Zone" (1983), which was scored by Michael Kamen. They are both from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Joe Dante and Jerry Goldsmith

' (1983), "Gremlins" (1984), "Explorers" (1985), "Innerspace" (1987), "The 'Burbs" (1989), ' (1990), "Matinee" (1993), "Small Soldiers" (1998) and "" (2003).

Brian De Palma and Pino Donaggio

Donaggio scored De Palma's "Carrie" (1976), "Home Movies" (1979), "Dressed to Kill" (1980), "Blow Out" (1981), "Body Double" (1984), "Raising Cain" (1992), and the forthcoming "Toyer".

Jonathan Demme and Rachel Portman

"Beloved" (1998), "The Truth About Charlie" (2002) and "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004).

= Danny DeVito and David Newman =

"Throw Momma from the Train" (1987), "The War of the Roses" (1989), "Hoffa" (1992), "Matilda" (1996), "Death to Smoochy" (2002), "Duplex" (2003) and the forthcoming "I Married a Witch" (2007).

= Walt Disney Studios and Sherman Brothers =

Brothers Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman contributed songs to several Disney films. Directors included Wolfgang Reitherman: "The Sword in the Stone" (1963), "The Jungle Book" (1967), and "The Aristocats" (1970)); Robert Stevenson: "Mary Poppins" (1964)and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971); and Norman Tokar: "Big Red" (1962) and "The Happiest Millionaire" (1967).

= Walt Disney Studios and Alan Menken=

Alan Menken and Howard Ashman- both famous previously for several Broadway hits- began a long collaboration with Disney, considered by many to be among the animated franchise's best, bringing popularity back to the films starting with "The Little Mermaid" (1989) and "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Unfortunately, Ashaman died of AIDS before the release of "Beauty..." and during production of "Aladdin" (1992). A dedication at the end "Beauty..." is made in his honor.

Menken, however, continued on composing the music for "Aladdin", "Pocahontas" (1995), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996), "Hercules" (1997), and "Home on the Ranger" (2004), though with different people composing the lyrics in Ashman's place, notably Stephen Schwartz (two times). He also recently scored the music for the live-action film "Enchanted" (2007).

Blake Edwards and Henry Mancini

Collaborated many times, including the Pink Panther series and "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

Atom Egoyan and Mychael Danna

Danna has scored Egoyan's "Family Viewing" (1987), "Speaking Parts" (1989), "The Adjuster" (1991), "Exotica" (1994), "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997), "Felicia's Journey" (1999), "Ararat" (2002) and "Where the Truth Lies" (2005).

Sergei Eisenstein and Sergei Prokofiev

Eisenstein and Prokofiev collaborated on "Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible Parts One and Two.

Roland Emmerich and David Arnold

"Stargate" (1994), "Independence Day" (1996) and "Godzilla" (1998).

Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Peer Raben

Provided music for nearly all of his films, here are the most famous examples:"Love Is Colder Than Death" (1969), "Katzelmacher" (1969), "Fox and His Friends" (1974), "Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven" (1975), "The Marriage of Maria Braun" (1978), "The Third Generation" (1979), "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980), "Lola" (1981), "Veronika Voss" (1982) and "Querelle" (1982)

Federico Fellini and Nino Rota

Fellini and Rota collaborated on fifteen films, from "The White Sheik" in 1952 to "Federico Fellini's Orchestra Rehearsal" in 1978.

Peter Greenaway and Michael Nyman

Nyman has scored Greenaway's "The Falls" (1979), "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), "A Zed and Two Noughts" (1985), "Drowning by Numbers" (1988), "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989) and "Prospero's Books" (1990).

Paul Greengrass and John Powell

"The Bourne Supremacy" (2004), "United 93" (2006), "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007).

Ray Harryhausen and Bernard Herrmann

Although technically not a director, Harryhusen's effects films are most often associated with him rather than the director. Bernard Herrmann score four of these films: "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver" (1960), "Mysterious Island" (1961), "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963)

= Werner Herzog and Popol Vuh =

Popol Vuh provided original music for Herzog's feature films "Aguirre, Wrath of God" (1972), "Heart of Glass" (1976), "" (1979), "Fitzcarraldo" (1982) and "Cobra Verde" (1987), and for his documentaries "The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner" (1974), "Gasherbrum - Der leuchtende Berg" (1984) and "My Best Fiend" (1999).

Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann

Herrmann composed the scores for Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry" (1955), "The Wrong Man" (1956), "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956), "Vertigo" (1958), "North by Northwest" (1959), "Psycho" (1960), and "Marnie" (1965). In addition, Herrmann served as "sound consultant" on "The Birds" (1963), which does not use a musical score per se.

Ron Howard and James Horner

They have partnered on many films since "Cocoon", including "Apollo 13", "A Beautiful Mind", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "The Missing".

Ishiro Honda and Akira Ifukube

Partnered on twenty films including "Gojira" (1954), "Rodan" (1956), "The Mysterians" (1957), "King Kong vs. Godzilla" (1962), "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster" (1964), "Frankenstein Conquers the World" (1965), "Destroy All Monsters" (1968), "War of the Gargantuas" (1970)

John Huston and Alex North

"The Misfits" (1951), "Under the Volcano" (1984), "Prizzi's Honor", and "The Dead".

Peter Jackson and Howard Shore

Howard Shore has composed The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He was slated to compose Jackson's remake of "King Kong", but was ultimately replaced by James Newton Howard.

Lawrence Kasdan and James Newton Howard

All of the films that Kasdan has directed since 1991 have been scored by Howard, including "Grand Canyon" (1991), "Wyatt Earp" (1994), "French Kiss" (1995), "Mumford" (1999), "Dreamcatcher" (2003), and the forthcoming "The Risk Pool" (2007).

Krzysztof Kieslowski and Zbigniew Preisner

Preisner scored Kieslowski's "No End" (1984), "Dekalog" (1988), "The Double Life of Véronique" (1991) and the "Three Colours" trilogy (1993-4). In "Véronique" and "Three Colours", his work sometimes appears as that of the fictitious Van den Budenmayer.

Takeshi Kitano and Joe Hisaishi

Hisaishi scored many of Kitano's pictures, beginning with "A Scene at the Sea" (1991).

Zoltan Korda and Miklós Rózsa

"The Four Feathers" (1939), "The Jungle Book" (1942), "Sahara" (1943), "The Macomber Affair" (1947) and "A Woman's Vengeance" (1948).

John Landis and Elmer Bernstein

Bernstein has composed ironically bravado "classic Hollywood" scores for Landis comedies as "Three Amigos" and "Animal House", while also providing the incidental music for such Landis projects as the music video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

David Lean and Maurice Jarre

"Doctor Zhivago", (1965) "A Passage to India" (1984), "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962).

Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard

Blanchard has scored many of Spike Lee's films; the collaboration beginning with "Jungle Fever".

Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone

Morricone scored all Leone's films from "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) to his last, "Once Upon A Time In America" (1984). Quentin Tarantino has commented on their collaborations: "I think a case can even be made that with Leone and Morricone that they are the best director-composer team in the history of film. It's like you can't even imagine Leone's movies without Morricone's music. It's even more important than Hitchcock and Herrmann or any other director composer relationship in history." [http://www.tarantino.info/wiki/index.php/Sergio_Leone:_Once_Upon_A_Time_Excerpt]

Barry Levinson and Hans Zimmer

"Rain Man" (1988), "Toys" (1992) and "An Everlasting Piece" (2000).

George Lucas and John Williams

Every Star Wars film has been scored by Williams. The four directed by Lucas are: ' (1977), ' (1999), ' (2002) and ' (2005).

David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti

Badalamenti scored "Blue Velvet" (1986), "Wild at Heart" (1990), "" (1993), "Lost Highway" (1997) and "Mulholland Drive" (2001) for Lynch, as well as the television series "Twin Peaks".

Sam Mendes and Thomas Newman

"American Beauty" (1999), "Road to Perdition" (2002) and "Jarhead" (2005).

Hayao Miyazaki and Joe Hisaishi

Hisaishi scored "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" (1984), "Castle in the Sky" (1986), "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988), "Kiki's Delivery Service" (1989), "Porco Rosso" (1992), "Princess Mononoke" (1997), "Spirited Away" (2001) and "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004).

Christopher Nolan and David Julyan

David Julyan has scored all of Nolan's films except "Batman Begins" (2005). Julyan scored "Following" (1998) on a budget of roughly eight dollars.

Laurence Olivier and William Walton

Collaborated on all of Olivier's films, except for "The Prince and the Showgirl" (1957).

Alexander Payne and Rolfe Kent

"Citizen Ruth" (1996), "Election" (1999), "About Schmidt" (2002) and "Sideways" (2004).

Roman Polanski and Wojciech Kilar

"Death and the Maiden" (1994), "The Ninth Gate" (1999) and "The Pianist" (2002).

Sam Raimi and Danny Elfman

"Darkman" (1990), "Army of Darkness" (1993), "A Simple Plan" (1998), "Spider-Man" (2002) and "Spider-Man 2 (2004)".

"Spider-Man 2" would sever the close working relationship between them because of many of the [unspecified] conflicts between Elfman and Raimi during the scoring and editing process; Elfman said this would be his last collaboration with him. As a result, much of the score for "...2" was either reused from the first "Spider-Man" film or new music composed by Christopher Young and John Debney, with only limited material of Elfman's original score surviving into the final film. (After the film's release, many of the new and original unused scores by Elfman made it onto the internet, though what the source was is indeterminable.) "Spider-Man 3 (2007)" was composed by Christopher Young. (Ironically, none of Young's music for "...3" saw release as a separate soundtrack CD.)

Mani Ratnam and A. R. Rahman

"Roja" (1992), "Thiruda Thiruda" (1993), "Bombay" (1995), "Iruvar" (1997), "Dil Se" (1998), "Alaipayuthey" (2000), "Kannathil Muthamittal" (2002), "Aayitha Ezhuthu" (2004), "Yuva" (2004) and "Guru" (2007)

Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass

Glass has composed the music for Reggio's "Qatsi Trilogy" and "Anima Mundi".

Rob Reiner and Marc Shaiman

"When Harry Met Sally..." (1989), "Misery" (1990), "A Few Good Men" (1992), "North" (1994), "The American President" (1995), "Ghosts of Mississippi" (1996), "The Story of Us" (1999), "Alex & Emma" (2003) and "Rumor Has It" (2005).

Wolfgang Reitherman and Sherman Brothers

Brothers Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman contributed songs to several films which Reitherman directed for Walt Disney Pictures, including "The Sword in the Stone" (1963), "The Jungle Book", "The Aristocats" (1970), and "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977). See also Walt Disney Pictures and Sherman Brothers.

Alan Rudolph and Mark Isham

Isham has scored Rudolph's "Trouble in Mind" (1985), "Made in Heaven" (1987), "The Moderns" (1988), "Love at Large" (1990), "Mortal Thoughts" (1991), "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" (1994), "Afterglow" (1996) and "Breakfast of Champions" (1999).

Ridley Scott and Hans Zimmer

"Black Rain" (1989), "Thelma and Louise" (1991), "Gladiator" (2000), "Hannibal" (2001), "Black Hawk Down" (2001) and "Matchstick Men" (2003).

Tony Scott and Hans Zimmer

"Days of Thunder" (1990), "True Romance" (1993), "Crimson Tide" (1995) and "The Fan" (1996).

Joel Schumacher and James Newton Howard

"Flatliners" (1990), "Dying Young" (1991) and "Falling Down" (1993). James Newton Howard also wrote the theme to the TV series "2000 Malibu Road", which was directed by Joel Schumacher.

Franklin J. Schaffner and Jerry Goldsmith

"The Stripper" (1963), "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "Patton" (1970), "Papillon" (1973), "Islands in the Stream" (1977), "The Boys from Brazil" (1978), and "Lionheart" (1987). Jerry Goldsmith received Academy Award Nominations for four of these seven films.

Bryan Singer and John Ottman

Ottman edited and composed the scores for Singer's "The Usual Suspects", "Apt Pupil", "" and "Superman Returns", with the exception of the first "X-Men" movie, which was composed by the late Michael Kamen.

M. Night Shyamalan and James Newton Howard

The two have collaborated on all of Shyamalan's films since 1999's "The Sixth Sense", including "Unbreakable", "Signs", "The Village" (for which Howard received an Oscar nomination), "Lady in the Water" and The Happening.

Kevin Smith and James L. Venable

James L. Venable has composed music for all of Kevin Smith's films since "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001). He also composed music for Clerks the Animated Series.

Steven Spielberg and John Williams

Every film directed by Steven Spielberg since and including "The Sugarland Express" (1974), with the exception of "" and "The Color Purple", has been scored by John Williams.

Andrei Tarkovsky and Eduard Artemyev

Artemyev scored three of the five films Tarkovsky made in the USSR: "Solaris" (1972), "Mirror" (1974) and "Stalker" (1979). He also composed music to most films by Nikita Mikhalkov.

Giuseppe Tornatore and Ennio Morricone

"Cinema Paradiso" (1989), "Everybody's Fine" (1991), "Especially on Sunday" (1993), "A Pure Formality" (1995), "The Star Maker" (1995), "The Legend of 1900" (1998), "Malèna" (2000) and the forthcoming "The Disowned" (2006) and "Leningrad" (2006).

Gus Van Sant and Danny Elfman

"To Die For" (1995), "Good Will Hunting" (1997) and "Psycho" (1998).

Paul Verhoeven and Jerry Goldsmith

"Total Recall" (1990), "Basic Instinct" (1992) and "Hollow Man" (2000).

Paul Verhoeven and Basil Poledouris

"Flesh & Blood" (1985), "RoboCop" (1987) and "Starship Troopers" (1997).

= The Wachowski Brothers and Don Davis =

Don Davis scored the four films directed by the Wachowskis: "Bound", and all three films of "The Matrix" trilogy.

Frank Darabont and Thomas Newman

"The Shawshank Redemption" (1994), and "The Green Mile" (1999), both were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Score

Alejandro González Iñárritu and Gustavo Santaolalla

"Babel" (2006), "Amores Perros" (2000), and "21 Grams" (2003) - "Babel" won an Academy Award for Best Score.

Peter Weir and Maurice Jarre

"Dead Poets Society" (1989), "Witness" (1985), "The Mosquito Coast" (1986).

Billy Wilder and Miklós Rózsa

"Five Graves to Cairo" (1943), "Double Indemnity" (1944), "The Lost Weekend" (1945), "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970) and "Fedora" (1978).

Robert Zemeckis and Alan Silvestri

Zemeckis and Silvestri have collaborated on every movie Zemeckis has made since "Romancing the Stone".

Terry Zwigoff and David Kitay

"Ghost World" (2001), "Bad Santa" (2003) and "Art School Confidential" (2006).

Martin Scorsese and Howard Shore

"After Hours" (1985), "Gangs of New York" (2002), "The Aviator" (2004), "The Departed" (2006).