James Horner left behind a full score for upcoming film Magnificent Seven, despite the fact that he never saw a single frame of the film. In fact, at the time of his death, it hadn't even begun to shoot yet.
The Oscar winner behind the score from Titanic, Braveheart, Avatar and dozens more died piloting his singe-engine plane in California last month, aged just 61, robbing film fans of the opportunity to hear years more of his iconic film scores.
But for those like us who consider James Horner's work to be the unofficial sound of film, there's some solace to take in a recent reveal made by Southpaw director Antoine Fuqua.
Southpaw, along with The 33, was thought to be the last time we'd hear Horner's genius at work. And director Fuqua told NPR that Horner's involvement came as a total surprise to himself and those involved with the film:
He called me on a Saturday, after he watched [Southpaw], and I said I don't have any money because it wasn't a big budget movie. And he said to me, I love the movie. I love the father-daughter relationship. Don't worry about the money. I'm just going to do it. And he did it for nothing. He paid his crew out of his own pocket.
But, in true Horner style, there was more. Fuqua revealed a surprise Horner left him ahead of 2017's Magnificent Seven, which he has already began to direct:
I just found out a couple days ago his team flew out here to Baton Rouge, and they brought me all the music from "Magnificent Seven" - he had already wrote it for me based on the script,
Fuqua said.
And he did it all off the script because he wanted to surprise me. And I thought it was a gift or something. And they all came out here and they said, 'Antoine, James wrote the music for "Magnificent Seven" already, and it's just glorious.' And that's my memory of James.
It's a testament to Horner's talent that he could write an entire film score without seeing so much as a frame from the film, but doesn't quite come as a shock to Fuqua himself, who said,
[James] was an incredible human being. He was a filmmaker through and through. He was one of the most gentle people I've ever met. Even the way he spoke was very soft and thoughtful. He was magical. And he had this childlike wonderment in his eyes, but he was an amazing artist, an amazing poet.
Southpaw opens this Friday.
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