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Variety is reporting about todays Golden Globe nominees for all categories, but I’d like to post about the ones relevant to my (and your’s) interest.

Alexandre Desplat - “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”
Clint Eastwood - “Changeling”
James Newton Howard - “Defiance”
A. R. Rahman - “Slumdog Millionaire”
Hans Zimmer - “Frost/Nixon”

Seeing names like James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer are expected…but Clint Eastwood? Did he really compose the score Changeling? If he did, he really is tackling all aspects of movie making, isn’t he?

Other not-so-common names (at least to me) are those of Alexandre Desplat and Bollywood-heavyweight A.R. Rahman. Click their names and check out their IMDB profiles for their credits.

“Best Song” category is rather boring.

“Down To Earth” from “Wall-E” - Music By: Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman; Lyrics By: Peter Gabriel
“Gran Torino” from “Gran Torino” - Music By: Clint Eastwood, Jamie Cullum, Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens; Lyrics By: Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
“I Thought I Lost You” from “Bolt” - Music & Lyrics By: Miley Cyrus, Jeffrey Steele
“Once In A Lifetime” from “Cadillac Records”
Music & Lyrics By: Beyoncé Knowles, Amanda Ghost, Scott Mcfarnon, Ian Dench, James Dring, Jody Street
“The Wrestler” from “The Wrestler” - Music & Lyrics By: Bruce Springsteen

Further proof that Clint Eastwood has his hands in some of the audio production for his films. Also nice to see Peter Gabriel on the list.

Aside from the slew of Golden Globe nods yesterday, I found some good news surround the Dark Knight “Best Score” debacle I previously wrote about. The Academy has reversed its decision thus making the Dark Knight eligible for the “Best Score” Oscar! As Reuters reports:

After reviewing the submission, [the academy] concluded that Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard were the main composers and deemed the duo’s work for Warner Bros.’ Batman blockbuster as eligible. The academy said that since ballots had not been mailed, the decision would not affect the voting process.

Good news for all the people involved with the score for the Dark Knight. So far, from what I’ve found, there’s no list of Oscar Nominees for 2009, but as soon as there are, I’ll post the “Best Score” nominees.

Chances are, if you went to see a movie this summer, you probably saw the Dark Knight. It is, in my opnion, an extremely well crafted film from start to finish, and that includes the score within the film.

Problem is, while Dark Knight will at LEAST be nominated for a slew of Oscars (Best Supporting Actor and on), it will NOT be nominated for “Best Score.” Why? There were too many people involved with it.

There were five people involved with the score: Hans Zimmer (duh), James Newton Howard, music editor Alex Gibson, ambient music designer Mel Wesson, and composer Lorne Balfe.

The five above signed an affadavit citing that Zimmer and Howard were the two primary composers. But by adding Gibson, Wesson, and Balfe to the cue sheet, Zimmer and Howard ensured that all would recieve royalties acrued from the use of the score. However, the downside is, according to the Academy, there were too many people involved directly with the score thus disqualifying it from the Oscar nod for “Best Score.”

I wasn’t able to find out exactly how many people can be involved on a score while still keeping their work in contention for the Oscar, but from what I gather anything more than two is generally frowned upon by the Academy.

This wasn’t the first time in recent memory a score has been DQ’d: There Will Be Blood was unable to recive a “Best Score” nod due to the use of some pre-composed material within the score.

The moral of the story: by Zimmer and Newton not being total dicks and including the core crew invovled with the score, they ruined their chances of a “Best Score” Oscar this year. Oh well.