LOS ANGELES: Hans Zimmer and Jay Rifkin, two childhood pals who created the award-winning film score for The Lion King have fallen out over what Rifkin described in a $US10 million ($NZ15.6 million) lawsuit as Zimmer's plot to take over their famed Santa Monica, California music studio.

In the lawsuit, filed yesterday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Rifkin accused his longtime partner in Media Ventures Entertainment Group of plotting with the company's resident composers to hijack the business "in a textbook example of breach of fiduciary duty."

According to the company's Web site, Media Ventures is home to more than a dozen composers, a support staff of nearly 100 and a 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art studio campus.

Zimmer, whose 100th film is The Last Samurai, allegedly encouraged the other composers through a series of "secret e-mails" to stop working with Rifkin and join him "in a new paradigm or 'fraternity' of composers," the lawsuit said.

As a result, composers stopped honoring their contracts with Media Ventures and ceased cooperating in ongoing and future projects, the lawsuit said.

Zimmer, who has received major awards nominations for Rain Man, The Lion King, The Prince of Egypt, The Thin Red Line, and Black Hawk Down, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Rifkin and Zimmer met as teenagers in Brighton, England, through their guitar teachers. They performed in a rock band together and operated a music studio from the mid- to late 1970s with Rifkin acting as engineer and producer and Zimmer taking on the creative composing duties, the lawsuit said.

The partners collaborated in Hollywood for the first time on the soundtrack for the 1988 film Rainman, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

What is it with him that now he has left MV that he wants to form a group of composers again? At all cost. It's so odd. It must be because of the money. Looks to me like the money has gone to his head.

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Originally posted by ESB:
Wow, this opens my eyes about Zimmer. I already knew that Media Ventures is no good. It's obvious that they are in it for the money. A mass-production music factory. But I didn't realize that Zimmer could be the worst of them all.

What is it with him that now he has left MV that he wants to form a group of composers again? At all cost. It's so odd. It must be because of the money. Looks to me like the money has gone to his head.

[Message edited by ESB on 12-06-2003]

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Hans hasn't left the company. At least the article never stated anything about that.

For all we know Jay Rifkin's claim are false. There's nothing in the suit that tell us anything about Hans forming another company. For all we know, this "exodus" of composers might be referring to the previous composers like John Powell and Jeff Rona, etc.

And don't tell me all composers aren't in it just for the art. It's a dream of 10 year olds, not 30 something career composer.

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Originally posted by HadrianD:
And don't tell me all composers aren't in it just for the art. It's a dream of 10 year olds, not 30 something career composer.

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What the hell kind of comment is that? I know not all composers are in it for the art, and I would venture that it's virtually impossible to be in the business just for the art, given how close so many composers are instructed to stick to the temp track. But "a dream of 10 year olds"? Wow, I thought I was cynical!

Time will only tell on this one. It's interesting to think about this lawsuit and then think to that interview with Jeff Rona a while back where he said he had left because, basically, Media Ventures was becoming all about Hans. The question is whether Zimmer is really the one to point fingers at or whether Rifkin and Rona are simply jealous of his status. I feel more inclined to side with Rifkin and (moreso) Rona only because I think Media Ventures promotes conformity and stifles individuality in otherwise talented composers, but like I said, time will only tell.

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Originally posted by James:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by HadrianD:
[b]And don't tell me all composers aren't in it just for the art. It's a dream of 10 year olds, not 30 something career composer.<HR size=1></blockquote>

What the hell kind of comment is that? I know not all composers are in it for the art, and I would venture that it's virtually impossible to be in the business just for the art, given how close so many composers are instructed to stick to the temp track. But "a dream of 10 year olds"? Wow, I thought I was cynical!

Time will only tell on this one. It's interesting to think about this lawsuit and then think to that interview with Jeff Rona a while back where he said he had left because, basically, Media Ventures was becoming all about Hans. The question is whether Zimmer is really the one to point fingers at or whether Rifkin and Rona are simply jealous of his status. I feel more inclined to side with Rifkin and (moreso) Rona only because I think Media Ventures promotes conformity and stifles individuality in otherwise talented composers, but like I said, time will only tell.

Kirk[/B]

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Here! Here!

Especially that last paragraph!

And you can tell from the quality of the "output" that ART is not a priority.

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Originally posted by Bond1965:
And you can tell from the quality of the "output" that ART is not a priority.

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Nope. It's an AOL file extension.

(don't mind me...)

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Originally posted by James:
The question is whether Zimmer is really the one to point fingers at or whether Rifkin and Rona are simply jealous of his status. I feel more inclined to side with Rifkin and (moreso) Rona only because I think Media Ventures promotes conformity and stifles individuality in otherwise talented composers, but like I said, time will only tell.
[/B]

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I disagree. I doubt that many - if any - of these composers would ever have scored a film if they hadn't been at Media Ventures. As for Zimmer wanting to be the main man at the expense of everyone else - why would he bother to set up Media Ventures in the first place if that was his goal?

Allegations of ghostwriting are absurd; Zimmer frequently (almost every score) employs others to write bits of it for him - and then he gives them due credit in the film and in the album booklet. Most composers in Hollywood use ghostwriters due to time constraints or lack of talent (including one of the real A-list, an Oscar-winner) but nobody except Zimmer actually admits it.

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Originally posted by Southall:
Most composers in Hollywood use ghostwriters due to time constraints or lack of talent (including one of the real A-list, an Oscar-winner) but nobody except Zimmer actually admits it.

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An interesting allegation, but I'm tired of people claiming that one of the A-list composers does it, without ever mentioning who that composer is.

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Originally posted by Dinko:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by Southall:
[b]Most composers in Hollywood use ghostwriters due to time constraints or lack of talent (including one of the real A-list, an Oscar-winner) but nobody except Zimmer actually admits it.
<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

An interesting allegation, but I'm tired of people claiming that one of the A-list composers does it, without ever mentioning who that composer is.

Either put a name, or shut up about it. You and everyone else who brings that issue up.[/B]

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Originally posted by Southall:
If you pay for my lawyer when I'm sued, then I will.

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Originally posted by rkeaveney:
FYI, according to The Hollywood Reporter's article on the lawsuit, Zimmer has left Media Ventures.

Ryan

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True, the article said : "According to the suit" & "alleges" .
But how could Hans have left MV after POTC while still doing production work on The Last Samurai?

The fact that they stated how Zimmer had ghostwriters is untrue, given how it is acknowledged in any interviews that he does get help from his crew. And if you've read any of the interviews with one of the other composers, you would know that they tell it like it is.
This information about a new fraternity of free spirits has been around since last year @ Ghent when Klaus was interviewed. Though nothing about leaving MV was mentioned...

That was the first thought that came around, but then... Horner is so lazy, he already steals so much stuff from others, that I had to reject him because it would mean that he doesn't write anything. If a third is stolen, a third is recycled, and a third is ghostwritten, that doesn't leave anything for him to compose.

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Originally posted by Southall:
I disagree. I doubt that many - if any - of these composers would ever have scored a film if they hadn't been at Media Ventures. As for Zimmer wanting to be the main man at the expense of everyone else - why would he bother to set up Media Ventures in the first place if that was his goal?

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Don't read me wrong. I absolutely agree that many of them would not have otherwise gotten the opportunities they had through Media Ventures. My problem is that I feel it gives them these opportunities by robbing them of individuality. And Jeff Rona's problem was with what Media Ventures had become, not what it had started out as. It's not that Zimmer set up the place to be Caeser, only that that's how it's turned out.

And this is only speculation...maybe Zimmer isn't even to blame for this homogenization. After all, this is the sound that the studios want, so of course these young composers looking for a break are going to supply that familiar sound as best they can.

I don't know Hans Zimmer, so I can't say he's a megalomaniac. I can only say that MV scores make it sound (to me) like Hans Zimmer is a megalomaniac.